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Published: October 29th 2007
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This blog (and the next one) comes a little later than usual but life has been going at a hectic pace in the travel department of late as we wind down (or up) to our return to home shores.
The end of August saw the start of the grand tours avec le parents. Marcia and Seb arrived to stay with us and meet their new grandchild (not ours for those of you who think you might be really out of touch!) and after their usual rush around London and the mandatory outing to Liberty we then set off for five days on the continent together.
Eurostar to Brussels first, where we started off by doing a tour. Now we are not usually ones for tours but this was really excellent. Run by a group called ARAU, they are a society dedicated to the preservation of some of the few remaining art nouveau buildings in Brussels (the rest having been knocked down by various mislead councils, EU organisations and other multinationals who are not required to obtain planning permission- NZers I hear you gasp). The very idea that someone can just knock something down and whack some monstrosity up wherever
Horta House Brussels
Filled with the spoils of the Congo- but so spectacular inside and however they please is an odd one, and I have to say seeing Brussels town planning not a particularly successful one. However, the tour was fantastic and we saw some of the greatest Art Nouveau architecture we have seen yet, all with the addition of some pretty inspiring and intelligent commentary (see http://www.arau.org/ct_home.php) While it was amazing to see such beautiful examples of the period part of us did find it hard to align the idea that such beautiful and intelligent craft and design ideas were only realised due in part to the excessive wealth certain individuals acquired from the plundering of the Congo- a conundrum for us indeed, though not one Victor Horta (the big man in art nouveau) seemed to face.
Other highlights in Brussels were the Tintin museum- a most excellent history of cartoons and the development of Tintin if you are a fan (mostly in French so some issues there), finding a small and out of the way non tourist pub to drink lambic beer from the traditional ceramic jugs (for those of you interested in exploring the joys of lambic see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic), the French cuisine in German portions (as someone described Belgium food
en famille
getting caffined up before hitting the van Gogh museum to us), and the fabulous hotel we stayed in which was by far our best find on our travels yet (Brussels@heart). Great 4 story narrow town house in the middle of the red light district with the funkiest fit out and the best bed ever.
So onwards from Brussels to Amsterdam via the train. We loved Amsterdam. I have to say of all the places we have been (with the exception of Rome - see next blog) it was a city we really felt we could live in. It is hard to put your finger on it exactly, it just has a great atmosphere, friendly people who speak really good English (ekkkkkk how Eurocentric of me to say that!) heaps of excellent second hand shops (one in which we liberated some of our savings on a wonderful 1960s home hand pumped espresso machine) and lots and lots and lots of bikes. Paul and I started a competition to see who could spot the most bizarre way of transporting children on a bike. While I came close to winning on points of hilarity with a woman who had her small child, the small child’s doll and her fox terrier all
strapped into seats in a front barrow which was mounted on her bike, Paul eventually won with the guy who was riding along with a three year old crouched in a plastic crate thingy on his handle bars and a newborn baby strapped to his chest!
Anyway it was really fun, we spent time just wandering around the canals (thanks to Maiken’s tip on the lack of Dutch privacy we saw into a lot of fabulous canal houses in the evening), drinking coffee (can recommend Latai for great coffee nice atmosphere and cool retro fit out) and saw a good bit of art. The van Gogh museum was a bit of a tourist nightmare, but great to see so much of his work in one place. The Stedelijk Museum was great, though unfortunately at the time their modernism collection was not on display. The Stedelijk Museum café however (which is at the very top of the 14 story building- this is very high in Amsterdam) that doubles as a club at night was quite ace and worth the trip for the view over Amsterdam. While the pot and the prostitution was obviously there, it was just part of the
Getting caffined again!
In a great wee place called Latai atmosphere and not too over whelming though I did have a moment of drug related hilarity. While standing with mum outside a cafe next to some guys who were smoking from the hugest bong I have ever seen, mum said in a totally innocent manner “it smells like pot round here”. I felt it only my duty to educate her on the apparatus of pot smoking….
So after 5 days, home to the UK we travelled: overfed and enjoyably arted. Marcia and Seb packed up our couch and toddled off for two weeks in Croatia and Venice, and the next lot of parents arrived in the shape of the bright eyed and enthusiastic Glenda and John ……..to be continued in “The Grand Tour”
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