Brussels - Ghent - Bruges

We were up early and on the road today.... after checking out and loading the bus, we had one more attraction to visit in Brussels on the way out..

Brussels Atomium

 Apparently it is a trademark landmark for Brussels, as much as the Manikin Pis! But much bigger..

Wikipedia gives a short but sweet description of what it is about...

The Atomium ( /əˈtoʊmiːəm/ ə-TOH-mee-əm) is a landmark building in Brussels, originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). It is located on the Heysel Plateau, where the exhibition took place. It is now a museum.^[1]
Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak,^[1] it stands 102 m (335 ft) tall. Its nine 18 m (60 ft) diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected, so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Tubes of 3 m (10 ft) diameter connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central, vertical tube) to allow access to the five habitable spheres, which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere includes a restaurant which has a panoramic view of Brussels.

We only stopped briefly there to take some pics, then we were on the motorway to Ghent. In this part of the journey were given descriptions of all the optional extras and asked to nominate which ones we will take. I passed on the horse carriage ride through Bruges today, as I have visited before. In case anyone want s to revisit my last blog which  describes my experience in Bruges in 2014, you can click here.

Tomorrow we will be taking a canal ride and having a local guide walk us through the town, so I thought that might do me. Also, tomorrow night I have signed up for the trip to Ypres to hear the last post at Meningate and to visit some war cemeteries, so there's a full day ahead and it's nice to have a little break this afternoon.

So we  arrived at Ghent and the bus had to drop us on the outskirts of town as they are not allowed in to the central city area.
It was a freezing day. The temperature said 12º but I think it was lying! It rained quite a bit on and off, but I never was totally soaked....  I was very glad that I had brought out my big fleece jacket and warm track suit pants. The big case is worth the effort sometimes!!!

Our guide today was Daniella and she took us around the town and showed us various sites...

Agian... Wikipedia gives a short description of Ghent.. which means "junction" of the rivers.

Ghent (/ɡɛnt/; Dutch: Gent pronounced [ɣɛnt] ( listen); French: Gand pronounced [ɡɑ̃] ( listen); German: Gent pronounced [ˈɡɛnt] ( listen)) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province and after Antwerp the largest municipality of Belgium. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300. It is a port and university city.

Here are a few pics to give a flavour of the town...

Ghent

Ghent is based around canals

Ghent is based around canals

Old parts of Ghent

Meat Market

Entrance to the fish market

The pic above is the entrance to the fish market and I was thinking of my own forebears... TB Hunt and co and my own connection to fish markets.  You can see Neptune on the top and the two symbolic figures either side of the gate relate to the 2 different rivers that join in Ghent.

The 3 main buildings that dominate the city centre though are...

The Belfry

The Church of St Nicholas

The Church of St Bavo

This time the description comes from another website
St Bavo’s Cathedral has a rich history and it is also filled with art treasures that make many an art-lover’s mouth water: from the baroque high altar in white, black and red flamed marble, the Rococo pulpit in oak, gilded wood and marble, to a masterpiece by Rubens: Saint Bavo enters the Convent at Ghent, and the Calvary Triptych by Justus van Gent, the Gothic chandelier/sanctuary lamp, the opulent tombs of the Bishops of Ghent – and of course the world-famous Mystic Lamb.

The art piece of the Mystic Lamb is just beautiful. Our guide Daniella took us to a smaller chapel where she was able to explain different parts of the  Mystic Lamb to us. There were literally millions of tourists there and it was all a bit rushed. Today is the day before their Labor day holiday, so many people take it as a long weekend. And the Church was just teeming with people.
Last time I went to Ghent I took the audio guide and spent about an hour or so in front of the Mystic Lamb.... This time I spent about 10 minutes. I have to admit, I'm not that fond of Churches that are really tourist attractions. I know it's lovely that important art works are made available to people, but it didn't feel like a Church to me!

My pic of reproduction - we weren't allowed to photograph original

If you would like to have a look at the real thing.... try this link, which is entitled Inside the Ghent masterpiece.

Information about the Cathedral

Apparently the florists in Ghent provide all the flowers for the altar - in particular Azaleas, and they did look fantastic....

Flowers on the altar

Flowers on the altar

Flowers on the altar

 So, after all that we walked back to the edge of the town to collect our bus. I think everyone was glad to get inside out of the cold. It is such a fantastic experience to come to these towns and just feel the "vibe" of the place. It becomes very hard to put it into  words - and I'm always forgetting all the wonderful details our guides share with us.

Our journey then continued to Bruges where we are staying in a hotel that apparently was a monastery  before it became a hotel. It's a little bit older and more "lived in" than our Brussels hotel bit it's warm and comfy and clean and has wifi!!!!

Tonight we are going out for dinner in the town which is part of the deal. We really are well looked after. You could just about eat yourself silly on these tours. A cooked breakfast is provided every day, and the meals at night are enormous. it's hard to find the happy medium sometimes.

It's nice to have a few moments to myself now to just check my emails and the footy news!!! Important things of life are still going on!!!

Brussels - Waterloo - Antwerp

This holiday is turning out to be History Central! I did not really plan it that way, but more and more I am being exposed to great historical events. I suppose that's one big advantage of a holiday in Europe - around every corner lies a famous historical event.

Before I start, here's our bus. Brand new apparently and very comfortable. Our driver's name is Peter and he's a young lad, but a very good driver. Our travel director is Nathalie and she is very experienced. She has been running tours for 28 years, so she knows her bikkies! We're very lucky!

Our bus and driver Peter

So today's historical excursion was to Waterloo, just 30 mins outside Brussels. The day was cold and gloomy, with rain threatening, but luckily the rain did not happen. (Although right now as I write this, there is a massive thunderstorm happening overhead!)

Our first stop at Waterloo was an entry to the Museum which outlined the whole history of that era and the politics around that time. As I had already taught the French Revolution at school, I was very interested in all that they displayed that portrayed that time.
Of course, you can't talk about the French Revolution without the guillotine...

Guillotine

They shared many interesting things, but I'll just post a few pics to keep you interested!!!

Napoleon Bonaparte

French  Soldier Uniforms from around that time

Of course in case you don't remember, the Battle of Waterloo was where Napoleon was defeated by a combination of English - led by the Duke of Wellington  - and Prussian troops led by General Blucher.
The museum showed a 3D movie which was a summary of the battle complete with surround sound and effects. It was very well done.

When we had  finished with the movie, an option was to walk up the Lion's Mound which was over 200 steps....

Lion's mound

Fortunately, I couldn't find the entrance to the compound to complete that walk, but conversely, I also could not find the opening to the coffee shop! Ying and yang perhaps...????

Anyway, it was freezing by this time and we had to return to the hotel  in Brussels to drop off those who were not coming to the optional extra - a trip to Antwerp in the afternoon. And of course, guess what song we played as we drove back to the hotel.... we're all of a similar age and of course we all knew ABBA!!!!

I was so glad I chose to go on the afternoon trip to Antwerp - it was fantastic! We had a wonderful local guide called Min who knew so much stuff about Antwerp and took us to lots of amazing places.

We started with a walk to the town square in Antwerpen (as it is locally known).
That was dominated by two features - the Cathedral (which Min told us was one of the largest in the world) and the fountain and statue of Silvius Brabo . 

Brabo fountain

 It's a ripper of a story, as you often find in the European traditions!
Apparently there was a local dragon who controlled the river and made everybody who went past pay a tax, and if they didn't he cut off their hand and threw it into the river. Silvius Brabo was a mythical Roman soldier who apparently killed the dragon, cut off the dragon's hand and threw that in the river, And that is how Antwerp got it's name - it literally means "Hand throwing"
(I have to admit I love getting all  the local stories - one big advantage of going with a tour group as opposed to travelling on your own!)

Next Min took us to the Cathedral to see the art of Peter Paul Rubens.

Antwerp with  Cathedral in the background

Antwerp Cathedral

Inside Antwerp Cathedral

Sadly I didn't get to Mass today, but I certainly received a big dose of "kultcha" and spirituality through viewing these paintings. Min was quite an expert on art history and talked quite a bit about the role of the Catholic Church in Antwerp, and the  iconclasm which saw many statues removed from Catholic Churches in this country around that time.. I can't remember all the bits she told us, but click on the link above if you would like to learn more about him...
Here's a few of his masterpieces that are just freely available for viewing in this beautiful Cathedral.

Rubens Masterpiece with Min giving us a talk

It was a wonderful experience to be in that place, although I have to admit it was packed with bloody tourists!!!!

One more art piece to share...
Min said they had quite a progressive bishop there and he said that in the days of Rubens, they displayed his paintings while he was still alive and well. So this Bishop said they should display a contemporary art piece from someone who was still living. And here it is...

It portrays a modern person trying to balance life in the modern world with the challenges of the Cross as depicted in Christianity.

My mind is continually broadened as I travel....

Just a few more pics of Antwerp in general...

In the town square

Antwerp street

Guild houses

We had a free  30 mins at the end of the tour to get souvenirs or coffee or experience Belgian Beer..... well I know it was cold but.....

When in Belgium....

I'm just doing what my nephew Tommy told me to do last time!!!!

It's been a great day. Hope you enjoyed the stories too... :)

And thinking of all my colleagues who are returning to school after the Term  1 holidays!!! Sorrrrrryyyyy.... 😢😢😢

London - Brussels

This could be short and sweet tonight because I was concentrating so hard on getting myself and the luggage to Brussels I forgot to take pics! I was going to take one of Kings Cross or St Pancras International but didn't get to do it!! Here's one from the other day when I did my practice run!

Kings Cross St Pancras

Have to admit I was a little worried about getting me and my luggage across town via the Tube, but doing that dry run the other day really helped. It was supposed to rain all day too, but luckily it was ok for the 300m or so that I needed to get to Earls Court station.

Then,  all the lifts worked, and the trains connected and I got through customs etc without a hitch. The only "gulp" moment came when I had to life my big suitcase onto the slidey thing where they scan your luggage. No hope!!!  So I looked around with my best pathetic look and sure enough my hero emerged again and gave the case a big lift and there it went! I have been so blessed with so many people who have been kind to me.

The Chunnel train was fine....  It was so easy compared with airports etc...

Not very good at selfies!

Unfortunately the wifi wasn't all that flash, especially on the English side of the Channel but my brother Jim and niece Aimee were sending me scores for the footy, so I managed to keep up with what was going on. And the mighty Hawks won, which always makes things better.

Had one little hitch when I arrived. I caught a taxi here from the station, and I showed him what I thought was the address from Tripit, but it just showed the brand name and not the actual address, so I had to go  digging in my back pack for the actual papers. Anyway we made it eventually - he was a very kind and patient taxi driver.

They didn't give us a coffee on the train, as the hot water boiler was broken, so I was well and truly ready for a coffee after I arrived and checked in. So I went for a little walk. Couldn't find a coffee shop anywhere...

Found a market

...and a Church

but no coffee shop.

Then just up the road...

Street in Brussels

I found a very posh hotel...

Cafe Metropole

... where they charged me €4.90  for a simple little coffee with a bit of milk in the top. Aaaah the joys of travel!

So you can see I've changed currency to Euros and the cars drive on the other side of the road - thank God I'm not driving here!!!

This tour goes for about 10 days (I think!) and we're meeting before tea to go and see the Grand Place and the Manikin Pis, both of which I have seen before.

I came to Belgium on my last trip so I will be repeating some bits, but I don't  mind. I loved Bruge and Ghent and they're both on the list, so I'm happy to go there again.

There are lots of other places we are visiting that make this tour worthwhile.

The interesting thing for me will be to see how I go with a group activities. I'm a bit used to just wandering at my own pace....

Could be an interesting week!!!

Just come back from meeting the group and having dinner together.

We were taken by our tour guide Nathalie to Le Grand Place and saw the square at the heart of Brussels.... Here's a few pics

Le Grand Place

Le Grand Place

Le Grand Place

And the one statue that Brussels is most famous for... Le Manikin Pis

A little boy weeing...

 The story goes something like he wee-ed on the fuse of a bomb that was going to blow up Brussels and somehow his wee blew the fuse and the bomb didn't go off..... There's always a story to these things!!!

Brussels has me one hour closer to Australia. I put my clock forward one hour after I left the Chunnel on the Belgium side.

So that's  it for the first day of the next chapter in Wattle's Wanderings....  I'll be interested to see what happens next. Let's wait for the next thrilling installment.

One more thing... you may have noticed the URL has changed to BE for Belgium. If you've bookmarked the old link, it should still work anyway, I think.