Belgium

Photos:arriving in Antwerp, touring Antwerp, touring Ghent with Philippe


Belgium
9/19-21/07


Approaching Antwerp, the seas became a bit lumpy, which was compounded by the fact that again our pilot boat was late in arriving and we had to sit outside the entrance to the channel and maneuver in circles until they arrived. As a result, we were at times crosswise to the waves which created a wallowing effect on the boat. I commented that we likely wouldn’t have soup for lunch but we did (cream of mushroom) and it was fine. The lunch today was excellent - chicken roulade (wrapped around spears of white asparagus and peppers in a nice sauce), fresh green beans and browned potatoes. We have a wonderful assortment of fresh fruit again (brought aboard in Hamburg) and a more extensive selection of cheeses. We do eat well.

Just before we arrived at our berthing space in Antwerp, we spent two hours transiting a lock which took us from the channel into the Scheldt River and to this very busy commercial shipping port. We locked through with several barges and one huge (twice our size) tanker that came in behind us and barely left enough room to close the gates. When we exited the lock, which we later learned is the largest sea lock in the world, the tanker was met by two tugs which would help them maneuver to their berth and we were assisted by one. It seemed so eerily quiet and still, after rocking and rolling for nineteen hours, when we finally stopped and were secured at the dock. It’s nice to feel tucked in and joined to land, but we actually sleep better when at sea - it’s like being back in the womb. By the time we were cleared in by Customs and our quarantine flag was taken down, it was too late to go ashore (actually, we hadn’t planned to, so it was o.k.).

The next morning, we left the gate and walked a short way to the bus stop where, for one Euro, we took a but to the center of town. This is a very old city that came into existence around the Scheldt River. According to local legend, to cross this river, ship’s captains had to pay a toll to the giant, Droon Antigoon, who lived in the castle Steen; and if they didn’t pay, their hands were cut off and thrown into the Scheldt. “Ant” meaning hand and “werp” meaning “pier at the water’s edge.” Another bit of history we learned was that a huge statue was erected by the chapel at the entrance to the Steen of a man with spread out legs. This statue also used to have a very large penis and was therefore venerated by numerous women looking for a cure against infertility. The Jesuits found the statue too obscene in the 17th century. . . .and off went the decoration of the statue! (At least it was only made of clay!) The statue can still be seen today minus the large appendage.

As a cosmopolitan center, Antwerp opened the first international commodity exchange in Europe. The city thrived during the Renaissance. Rubens, who lived here, was a highly-valued artist in the 17th centuryHil paintings enriched the churches and chapels of Antwerp and his home is now open to the public. Of course, everything we see in this ancient city is hundreds years older than anything in our country. The town hall (Het Stadhuis), was built in the mid 1500's, a large Renaissance building, a mixture of Italian and Flemish designs, and the huge front portal with a triumphal stairway was built in the 19th centure and decorated with frescos depicting scenes of the history of Antwerp. The gorgeous “Marriage Room” is decorated with paintings by Van Lagye depicting portraits from marriages from different periods of history. In Market Square is the Brado fountain in honor of Silvius Bardo, a nephew of Julius Caesar, who vanquished the giant Antigoon and punished him the way he punished captains, by cutting of his right hand and throwing it into the Scheldt. The sculpture actually depicts Barbo running and holding a huge hand above his head.

De Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady), Belgium’s largest and most important Gothic church took two centuries to complete and it’s beautiful outside as well as in. Here are displayed several of Ruben’s tryp-tychs: “Descent from the Cross” and “Raising of the Cross” and “Resurrection”; as well as gorgeous stained glass windows and carved wooden benches, confessionals, pulpit and organ. As Rubens once said “Behold this city and you will know where I found my inspiration.” I think of the plumpness of the women the painted and looking around found where he could certainly have found inspiration if he were alive today. There is also the church of De Sint-Andrieskerk, built in the late gothic style in 1529 and later extended in the High Baroque style. (It still stands so, as I always say: “If it’s not baroque, don’t fix it.) In 1609, the marriage of P. P. Rubens and Isabella Brant was held here.

The Central Train Station, where we got off the bus, is a magnificent building with it’s dome 75m (I don’t know what that is in feet but some of you will figure it out) and designed in French Renaissance style in the late 1800s. It was lavishly restored in 1993 and when we were there was again undergoing some major renovation. Next to the Station, is the entrance to the Antwerp Zoo, founded in 1843 which covers over 10 hectares (how many acres is that?).

Our favorite museum in Antwerp was the Het Diamantcentrum (Diamond Centre) located in the heart of the Diamond District, which dates back to the 16th century when Antwerp was already a major center for diamond trade and cutting. Those same techniques are still in use today. There is a total annual turnover of over 19 billion euros traded in diamonds, which means that seven out of ten diamonds come from Antwerp. The diamonds themselves are from numerous mines all over the world and are cut and polished, appraised and sold here. As we walked around town, there were so many diamond shops that you could walk one city block without seeing five or six.

De Sint-Jacobskerk (St. Jacob’s Church, constructed in Brabant Gothic style) houses numerous great works of art by Rubens - one depicting him as St. George posed between his two wives, Isabella and Helena. There are many other churches here but one that we especially liked was St. Paul’s Church, built in Late-Gothic style (1530-1571) which houses paintings of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary which were painted in the 17th century by 11 different Antwerp masters, all from the school of Rubens.

Like any great city, there is a wonderful Royal Museum of Fine Arts built in the late 1800s, which holds five centuries worth of Flemish paintings; and The Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art, with an art-deco facade, it houses donations from all over the world. And of course, we can’t forget the Antwerp brewery, which was beautifully restored from an old warehouse, and now has an in-house brewery where you can enjoy tasting the delicious self-brewed beers for which Belgium is so famous. We’ve sampled a few and so far my favorite was one called Chimay which was very good.

We stopped for lunch at the old and very charming House of Mussels restaurant to have a typical feast of mussels cooked two ways (one large pot full steamed with white wine and garlic and the other with a garlic and cream wine sauce) both excellent and served with some of the best french fries I’ve ever tasted. With another sampling of some good Belgium beer, we all agreed that this was just about as good as it gets. We found an internet café and checked for messages from family and friends and it was, as usual, good to receive news from home.

Friday morning, Martha’s friend Philippe arrived about 9:00. After a quick tour of the ship, we set off in his car to Ghent. (Martha met Philippe last year on a white water rafting trip down the Colorado River. There were eighteen in Martha’s group and Philippe had come from Belgium to do the trip. A few weeks earlier, he made a trip to Juneau to visit the rafting group there but Martha was already on the freighter by then.) Ghent is a charming old town, about an hour’s drive from Antwerp, with cobblestone streets (some allowing only foot traffic) and a canal running the length of the town, that was originally used to transport goods produced there but now there are small boats used mainly for tourists to view the town from water. A lot like the gondolas on the canals of Venice, Italy. We toured one of the many old and beautiful churches, built in the early 1600s and were pleasantly surprised to find, in addition to the many classic artists represented (like Rubens), an exhibition of a modern artist by the name of Kim En Joong. There were huge white canvases that seemed to be floating from the vaulted ceiling and many others lining some of the walls. Father Joong is a brother of the Dominican Order, who has a large attic studio at the convent of the Annunciation in Paris and an outdoor studio provided by the Sisters of Saint-Paul de Vence in Nice, where he paints during the summer months. You may be able to see some examples of his paintings on line, but I wasn’t able to find information on the exact web site. I’m hoping his work will be an inspiration for some of my abstract paintings.

After a wonderful lunch (starting with my new favorite Belgian beer, Guesse, and finishing with a delicious Belgian waffle with ice cream) at an outdoor table looking out on one of the picturesque town squares, we spent about three hours touring the Gravensteen Castle. We walked and climbed over every narrow stairway and winding hallway, including dungeons and torture rooms, and saw weapons and armor of war, and fantastic views from the balustrades of what looked like a miniature village below. We were fortunate to have a warm, sunny day for touring and stopped for coffee at an outdoor café and enjoyed watching the activities of the old marketplace square. After a quick stop for some of Belgium’s finest chocolates to last us the rest of the voyage, we headed back. We really enjoyed Philippe’s company and especially appreciated him taking us to see another beautiful part of Belgium.

We were scheduled to leave Antwerp Saturday morning (the 21st) but it was announced that we should be back aboard by 10 PM for an 11:00 departure. We were back in plenty of time, but we didn’t actually get underway until 2:30 AM (as usual, we had to wait for the pilot to come aboard). It was incredibly calm the entire first day and I was able to paint two scarves (very detailed designs using resist) and it was nice to easily walk around the decks. The Captain’s wife, Barbara, came up to the weather-deck lounge (where I have my art studio) and brought binoculars so that I would see the white cliffs of Dover, England on one side and Calais, France on the other. The weather became increasingly warmer as we moved south past France and we had glorious sunshine in the waters off Spain, though it was very windy and the seas were a bit rough. For those of you who do silk painting (not many, I know), on one of the roughest days, I prepped two silks with “no-flow” and did a water-color style scarf of water lilies and another of fish. It was still a challenge, with the boat rolling from side to side, so decided it’s best to stay with abstracts.