architecture

Ghent

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(DAY 5)

We had trouble deciding which city to visit after Ypres: Ghent, Bruges, or Antwerp. We picked Ghent because the little tourist pamphlet from the airport mentioned Ghent’s vegetarian restaurant guide map. (The veggie option on dinner menus in Belgium is usually limited to pasta– I’d already eaten 4-cheese penne (twice I think), spinach canneloni, and vegetarian spaghetti… ). So on Saturday morning, we checked out of our hotel and took a train to Ghent for a two-night stay.

Here are pictures of the train ride and a bit of wandering around the city.

Ypres

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(DAY 3)

After a short train ride from Brussels, we arrived in Ypres fairly starving on Thursday afternoon. We hurried to check in at our hotel, found the quickest food we could (a veggie burger!, frites, and beer at the local fast food place), and headed to the tourist information center which is conveniently located in a building you cannot miss: Lakenhalle (Cloth Hall).

The city is much smaller than Brussels (less than 40,000) and has been completely rebuilt since World War I. I wanted to visit to learn more about the war, having mostly forgotten the contents of an undergraduate class I’d once taken called WWI: Canada’s War of Independence. Eric was not initially interested in war history, but became so during our stay. Not hard in a place like this.

As soon as you step foot from the train station, you are stunned by how beautiful Ypres is– then to find out how much damage it suffered in four years and the scope of reconstruction… There was so much to learn we decided to stay two days.

These pics are from wandering around the town and eating out in Ypres:

Dusseldorf

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(DAY 2)

The purpose of leaving Belgium the day after we arrived was business: Eric and Stefan wanted to meet their developer who happens to live in Germany, a mere two hours from Brussels. And the reason I tagged along was to glimpse a bit of a second European country, if mostly through the train window. Had I known that the tickets would cost 82 Euro per person each way and that I would not get a “Germany” stamp in my passport, I might have stayed in Brussels and visited a couple museums there instead.

I’m happy I didn’t realize the price until we were headed home. Watching landscapes float by through train windows is one of my favourite things. The overcast sky that day made the green fields look greener. There is no “Welcome to Germany” billboard, so I didn’t notice we’d changed countries until we had to transfer in Köln (Cologne). By ducking a bit you could see the Cologne Cathedral right from the train platform.

In Düsseldorf, we were slightly confused by the subway system– you had to buy your tickets on the subway train itself. It was a bit of a rush to figure this out and buy three tickets before our very near stop, but we made it to Altstadt (Old Town) intact. Once the boys found each other and picked a restaurant, I had a perfect little grainy bread sandwich and rushed off down the street to see some art.

First, I went to the Kunstverein (contemporary art museum). The Harry Flynt exhibit was entertaining, but I found the rest of the stuff absurdly crappy. I left within 30 minutes, crossed the street to the K20 (Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen) and filled the remainder of my afternoon seeing a special exhibit on Gillian Wearing (whom I’d never heard of before), plus several Picassos, a Matisse, a Pollock, Léger, Magritte, Miró, Andy Warhol and so and and so forth.

Of their collection, the K20 website says:

Founded in Düsseldorf 50 years ago was a museum which today features a singular selection of 20th and 21st century art. Among the undisputed highlights are key German Expressionist works, paintings by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and Jackson Pollock, and installations by Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik. Found alongside these well-known icons of advanced art are numerous outstanding examples of classical modernism, of American art after 1945, as well as major installations and photographic, filmic, and video works by contemporary artists.

After strolling back to meet the boys, we got a brief tour of the Altstadt and then drank some mulled wine before heading back to Brussels.

Gaasbeek Castle

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(DAY 1 )

After breakfast, hotel selection, check-in, a stroll around the Grand Place, and a snack of frites, Eric’s partner, Stefan, drove us to his “childhood playground” just outside of Brussels: Kasteel van Gaasbeek. Yes, that’s right: when Stefan was a youngster his parents were caretakers of the house next door and he was able to run and play throughout the castle grounds. He even admitted to trying to throw rocks at the windows.

[Aside: Now had that been me, I’m certain I would not be so well-adjusted– my closet would be full of homemade princess costumes, I’d probably be carrying a bejeweled sword around with me, and would have taken a much greater interest in Dungeons and Dragons in my teenage years. But I digress.]

Walking around outside the castle is free, but we decided to take a tour of the inside as well. I have no evidence to show you that the castle is furnished because I couldn’t take photos inside, possibly due to its own art collection or the fact there was an additional art exhibit in various rooms throughout (some of this was quite weird– encountering a giant legless hairy beast in the salon, for instance).

The paintings, sculptures, furniture, tapestries, etc. etc. were all super cool, but what I liked best was the secret door in the library that even the servants didn’t know about– and was used by the Marquise to spy on visitors. Hearing about this raises the bar, let’s say, in our house-shopping back home.

Of course our visit was completed with a stop at the Brasserie Graaf van Egmond where Eric tried a Rochefort Trappist. I had a coffee which was served with a delicious teeny pastry filled with alcoholic custard. Stefan must have noticed the greed in my eyes because he let me have his pastry, too.

The Kasteel van Gaasbeek website has information in English. Here’s a quote on its historical background:

Gaasbeek Castle is located just outside Brussels amidst the gently rolling hills of the Pajottenland. The medieval castle had an eventful past and evolved from a strategic stronghold into a spacious country house. One if its most famous owners was the Count of Egmond. The current building was redesigned in Romantic style at the end of the 19th century thanks to the eccentric Marquise Arconati Visconti.

She decorated the castle as a museum to house her vast art collection and played it like a historical theatre setting. The dream castle which was created at the time is still a bit of a time machine. You can wander through historicising interiors and discover tapestries, paintings, furniture, sculptures and other valuable objects.

Brussels

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(DAY 1 and 7)

After our visit to North Carolina, Eric and I flew to Belgium. It was impossible for me to sleep during the 8-hour flight because I was far too excited for my first trip to Europe. Also, for some reason, Eric and I were seated across the aisle from each other on the plane and I had no one to lean on.

We went to Belgium with no other plan than this:

  • be in Brussels on Tuesday morning
  • go to Duesseldorf on Wednesday
  • see Veurne, Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp
  • drink beer and eat chocolate

We had 7 days.

On day one, Eric’s partner picked us up at the airport and drove us to a nice breakfast place in Brussels. While eating the most delicious almond croissant I’ve ever tasted, which I smothered with dark chocolate and also with white chocolate spread, I realized Belgium was heaven. One week was not going to be enough.

On day two we realized our one-city-per-day idea was ridiculous. Spending every single day on the train would mean we’d have only half a day in each city. In the end our itinerary turned out to be:

Day 1: Brussels
Day 2: day trip to Duesseldorf
Day 3: train to Ypres
Day 4: Ypres
Day 5: train to Ghent
Day 6: Ghent
Day 7: train back to Brussels
Day 8: fly sadly home

After the first morning croissant, Stefan helped us pick a hotel in the city centre, showed us around the Grand Place area, then drove us to visit Gaasbeek Castle (photos coming soon). The pics below are from wandering around Brussels (sometimes lost) on Day 1 and Day 7.

Next time we go to Brussels (because we will definitely be going back), I’d like to take the hop on / hop off bus to get a real city tour and see some of the things we missed: the EU parliament, the Atomium, the Horta Museum, the Belgian Comic Strip Centre, and so so so much more.

Toronto in September

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One Sunday last month I took a bus trip to Toronto to meet my friend, Diane. We both scored cool old books at a U of T book sale (part of the  Word on the Street festival) and then had pie at a dessert shop. There are no pictures of the hanji shop we wandered into, but it was awesome, too.

Nice spot for a book fair.
Pie makes everyone happy.
Pretty house.

Stone cottage on the river, anyone?

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Yesterday we drove up to Owen Sound to see this house. It’s a two storey stone cottage built in 1939 and more than absolutely adorable. So many original details remained: the tile floor in the bathroom, the built-in glass-doored bookshelf in the living room, the dark-stained French doors and trim all around, the curved ceiling in the master bedroom, two built-in corner cabinets in the dining room… Try to tell me my vintage reference books and flowery teacups aren’t screaming for a home like this! The icing on the cake is that it sits right along the Sydenham River with 250 feet of waterfront property. Pretty much every room in the house has a river view and Eric could quite literally fish in his pyjamas from the backyard.

Unfortunately for us, some less than romantic details also remain: knob and tube wiring, asbestos, smoke-stained plaster walls, old carpeting, some riverbank erosion… Oh, and the price. None of the needed updates would be insurmountable if the cost weren’t already stretching our budget to the max and if we had any home-renovation skills whatsoever. Maybe someday!

Toronto in March

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Back at the AGO (Piotr's photo).