Flanders Day 5: “Partir, c’est mourir un peu”

I’m sitting on the TGV watching the beautiful countryside pass me by as the sun slowly sets. The fields are emerald green and vibrant yellow and the trees are covered in leaves. Currently, I’m listening to Dr. Dog’s “Where’d All the Time Go” and reflecting on my adventures…

This morning Rik and I went for a walk by the lake and we were lucky enough to see lots of nesting birds with their followings of ducklings. I was so content not to go to another museum or see another old building. Though it’s wonderful seeing historic buildings and ancient artifacts, no man-made object can ever replace the beauty of nature.

After the walk and some lunch it was time to say goodbye. At the train station I ate my first (and hopefully not last) scrumptious Belgian waffle. Rik said I reminded him of Philine, his granddaughter, because that was the first and last thing she always did.

My observations on Belgium:

1. People are more willing to speak English than in France or Norway (Norwegians speak English well, but they’re just more shy about it).

2. Most people in Belgium speak about 3-4 languages: Flemish, Dutch (because it is almost the same as Flemish), French, English and German are the primary ones.

3. Each type of liquid (be it water or beer) is served in a different type of bottle and glass. There’s SO many varieties of beer which is astonishing because it means that for every single type there is a different bottle and different glass with that type of beer's name on it. Yikes.

4. Kriek is one of the most popular drinks, especially for girls. It’s a very sweet, fruity and delicious cherry beer.

5. There are lots of similarities between Flemish and English and I think it would be easier to pick up than Norwegian. For example, “dank u” is “thank you” and “goeiemorgen” is “good morning.”

6. I have never seen so many bicycles in one place in my entire life. If anyone has ever lost a bike or had one stolen...it's probably here.

Living with the Verbekes was like living with a French family. I went from speaking a ton of English and almost no Norwegian to speaking a ton of French and almost no English. This spring break was marvelous and I’m so grateful that I was able to stay with both the Brunvolls and the Verbekes.

Vaarwel! (for now)

Heidi

Sidenotes:

1. Made it to Lille-Flandres station and saw the cathedral there, but then almost missed my train from Paris to Angers because I thought I could walk from the Gare du Nord to the Gare Montparnasse in an hour and a half. (Yes, that was a dumb idea, but hey, I figured out why subways are such a good idea.) Word to the wise, don’t attempt it. Especially if you’re carrying 80 pounds on your back.

2. I was so happy to be back in Angers! It has really come to feel like home.

3. The quote at the top means: “To leave is to die a little.”

4. Dr Dog’s “Where’d All the Time Go”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0f5MHtm63k

Flanders Day 4: Brussels—Capital of Europe

Headed for the train station once again, but this time we were going in the opposite direction towards Brussels, the seat of the European Union. We got off at the Brussel-Centraal station one of three different train stations you can get off at. (The double “aa” isn’t a mistake. Lots of words in Belgium have “aa.”) This can be very confusing and with my recent train luck it’s a good thing Rik was there.

First stop: the Grand Place. A large flower market dominates the center, but the buildings surrounding it were highly impressive. We found the Hôtel de Ville, which resembles a church, and signed up for a guided tour. The ticket also got us into the Museum of Costumes & Lace and King’s House Museum, which is directly opposite the Hôtel de Ville, for free. The Museum of Costumes had a special exhibit on clothes from the 60s and the dresses and lace were just too cool. It was a quick visit because we needed to get to our tour at the Hôtel de Ville.

During the tour, we saw various portraits of famous personages, like Napoleon Bonaparte, and the different rooms where affairs of the state take place, the Board room and Marriage room. I learned that Brussels was attacked by Louis XIV and in the process part of the Hotel de Ville was destroyed. On top of the tower is Saint Michel and his figure is located everywhere throughout Brussels because he is Brussels’ patron saint.

Second stop: the King’s House. Inside were paintings and sketches of Brussels through the ages. But the best part was the display of Manneken Pis (in Dutch: Little boy peeing). Manneken Pis is a small fountain a block from the Grand Place and it is a HUGE tourist attraction. At the museum they had his entire wardrobe and jeesh does he have a lot of clothes, over 800 outfits. I’m definitely jealous. He has costumes from everywhere and impersonates SO many people. The townspeople have dressed him up as Elvis, Mozart, Nelson Mandela, a Native American, an FBI agent, Dracula, a bunch of balloons, a German, a Thailander, etc. After seeing all the costumes we went to see the little man.

We were in luck because there was a lady in the middle of changing his clothes so I got a before-and-after shot. On this day he was from Portugal. The minute she finished and turned on the fountain, there was a raucous applause and the French man next to me declared, “Ça va mieux!” (That’s much better!). His statement was hilarious because in the museum we’d seen a film from the 90s showing different tourists’ reactions to the fountain and his response would have fit perfectly into the documentary.

Third stop: the Royal Palace and Brussels park. The present Royal Family doesn’t use it as a Royal residence, but it was still neat to see it. In fact the king lives in another castle (at Laken) which is in a suburb of Brussels. Brussels Park was so different from the French gardens. French gardens are well planned while this Belgian park still had some wildness about it.

Fourth stop: MiniEurope. Basically like going to Disneyland and walking amongst the Storybook Land Canals.* Every country in the European Union was represented by at least one Lilliputian national monument. So now I don’t have to visit London or Barcelona or Rome because I’ve already seen their greatest monuments. Just kidding. If traveling and site seeing were just about seeing grand monuments, it wouldn’t be half as fun. Traveling is all about experiencing everything with all your senses. You want to see everything, yes, but just as important, if not more so, is feeling, smelling, tasting and listening to everything around you. That’s how you really get to know a place. Still MiniEurope was unbelievably cool and now I want to visit those places even more. It was especially amazing seeing the places I’ve actually been to: Chenonçeau, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels and Paris.

Final stop: the Atomium. It resembles a gigantic iron atom (it’s 102 m or 335 ft tall) and was built for the 1958 World Expo. We took what was once the fastest elevator in the world to the very top where there is a restaurant and a panoramic view of Brussels. Afterwards we went into some of the other eight spheres via escalator or stair for an exhibit dedicated to World Expo 1958. It was funny watching the old cleaning product commercials for housewives—these women were mopping the floor in heels and dresses!

On the walk back from the train station I told Rik that though I liked all the cities I’d seen, I preferred Ghent to them all. He said a lot of people have said that because although Ghent is old, “C’est une ville qui vit” (It is a city which lives).

Heidi

*Storybook Land Canals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storybook_Land_Canal_Boats

Staircase in Hôtel de Ville

Napoleon

Flanders Day 3: Bruges—Venice of the North

Rik and I hopped on a train for Bruges--directly west of Ghent and where Rik grew up (his parents owned a hotel called The Golden Horn). Our first stop was the Burg. The Burg is a spacious area where the Hôtel de Ville (town hall), belfry and Basilica of the Sacred Blood are located. The Basilica was my favorite church because its Gothic interior was so colorful (it’s also got an austere Romanesque lower chapel, but it wasn’t quite as cool). Only managed to take one picture because pictures weren’t allowed. The reason it’s called “Holy Blood” is because it houses a piece of cloth contains blood that Joseph of Arimathea wiped from Jesus’ body. Various myths surround it, but the most likely history is that the relic was sent from Constantinople to Bruges in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. Of course, whether or not it’s actually Jesus’ blood is subject to debate.

Next up were some churches and museums. In Bruge’s Notre Dame there was a marble statue of the “Virgin and Child” by Michelangelo that faintly resembles the “Pièta.”
The Groeninge Museum is home to Jan van Eyck’ “Madonna with Canon Joris van der Paele,” Hiëronymus Bosch’s “Last Judgment,” works by Hugo van der Goes, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Brusselmans, René Magritte, James Ensor, and other Flemish painters. Van Eyck’s “Madonna” was beautiful with astonishing details like light from the windows reflecting off the knight’s armor. Bosch’s piece was creepy because it showed people being tortured and skinned alive. I prefer his other, more famous piece “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” the other one gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Bruges is known as “Venice of the North” so naturally we had to take a canal ride. Again, the boat ride was wonderful. We passed about 20 swans just napping in the grass and navigated in between the buildings on either side of the canal. I’m so impressed that these buildings stayed intact through both World Wars. Each building was marvelously different from the one next to it.

In the streets there were many horse drawn carriages pulling people about making the city, making it feel even more like a time capsule. We even came across a woman making lace (another thing Bruges is known for.) Our last stop was the Beguinage which is sort of like a monastery or convent, but less strict. God seeking or spiritually minded women could live in this small community and seek refuge from the outside world. They took vows of obedience and chastity, but not of poverty and could leave the community at any time they wished.

We returned home and I got a tour of the Verbeke’s apartment which is almost a museum in its own right. They’ve got miniatures from all over the world: China, Thailand, the US, Africa, etc. Rik also showed me a bunch of photos from his military life in the Belgian Congo. He had some old black and white photos of his men cutting open an enormous snake and finding a partially digested antelope inside!

Rita made salmon and white asparagus (I’d thought there was only the green kind) for dinner, which we ate on the balcony. And then we had sundaes with Belgian chocolate and chocolate “Conga” sprinkles.

Yum!

Heidi

P.S. There’s also a recent movie called In Bruges with Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. If you liked Pulp Fiction, you’ll probably like it. It’s violent, has excessive swearing, and consists of black humor with elements both tragic and comic. The best part about it is that it gives you a good idea of what Bruges looks like.

Jan Brusselman's "Still Life with a Fan"

Portal into the Beguinage.

The Bruges Belfry.

Flanders Day 2: 2010 Ghent Floralies

So what’s a floralie? And what are the Ghent Floralies? Floralie stems from the Latin word “floralia” meaning, you guessed it, flowers. It’s connected with Ancient Roman May Day celebrations and flower festivals and today it signifies much the same thing. As to the second, the Ghent floralies is an international flower exhibit that was started in 1808 by Frans Van Cassel and the Society of Agriculture and Horticulture (which in 1815 became the Royal Society of Agciculture and Horticulture).

Van Cassel was a passionate gardener and collector of exotic plants who just wanted to share his love of horticulture. The very first exhibition was February 6, 1809 though it wasn’t known as the “Floralies” until 1873.

Today the flower festival lasts for one week and occurs every five years. (Talk about being in the right place, at the right time.) This 34th floral expo boasted a 2km walk; 4.5 hectares (11 acres) of indoor garden—the largest in the world; 300,000 visitors; 305 exhibits, and foreign presence from Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, France, Kenya, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States.

So that’s a brief summary of what it is, but that doesn’t even begin to convey what it was like being there. The smells that assail you are luscious, like a breathable elixir. It was incredible. Not only were the colors extremely vibrant, but the variety of flora was astounding. Guaranteed, every color on the spectrum was represented.

If you ever get the chance to go, or are anywhere near Belgium in April of 2015, you have to go. End of discussion.
Heidi