Blogs from Antwerp, Antwerp Province, Belgium, Europe - page 4

The last city we visited in Belgium was Antwerp. A small can compact heart with a large square overlooked by a impressive Stadhuis. From every available space flew an EU country flag. In the middle of the square was a baroque styled fountain. Impressive but not to my taste. Antwerp was on the River Scheldt a large wide and muddy river. There were the usual merchants houses with steep rooves and immaculate brickwork. One of the most interesting features of the city was the museum which was the home of printing. Some years ago we watched a programme on BBC2 narrated by Stephen Fry who visited the Plantin Moretis museum and this was put on the list of things to do. It holds the oldest surviving printing press in the world complete with sets of dies ... read more

Thursday July 21st, 2011 Antwerp, Belgium - 7am This morning we are laying alongside the dock in Belgium. The city is asleep, but the dock workers are scurrying to make our lines fast to the wharf. Jane is at stretch class and I have been standing at the rail on the upper deck gazing out over the City of Antwerp. Yesterday when we boarded the Ocean Princess after our six weeks in Britain and Ireland it was like coming back to a one of your favorite places; familiar, pleasant and comforting. Our time with our two different woofer hosts in Ireland is one of the highlights of the entire round the world odyssey. Their homes were filled with love and lots of wonderful pets. They started out as strangers and I can truly say that we ... read more

The weather report AGAIN called for 70% rain, and our shoes were still wet - so we decided to explore the town of Antwerp on foot! It is a great city with a population of about 475,000. The train station is absolutely beautiful - full of history and ancient architecture! We started out our trek looking for the two fabric/quilting stores that I found through some searching. Lana's was first that we came upon on Anselmostraat 92 - a quaint yarn and fabric store. Most of their fabrics appeared to be by American manufacturer's but I did find a few pieces of fabric of a more European color scheme. The shop owner asked where we were from, and seemed quite honored that someone from the US would buy fabric in Belgium - she said - It ... read more

Hi !! Belgian TV showed this evening a report about Bart... A 23 yo guy who died last December after a battle of 7 years against cancer. Once Bart knew that he could not recover from the cancer he started up with his brother an organisation which has to aim to convince people to be more happier about their lifes. People should be happy about the things they have. Bart chose to have himself sedated on the day that he felt that he could not live with the pain anymore... It was a very emotional report on TV... So why am I telling this? Very simple : Bart's final words ( "Enjoy life and be happy about the things you have and don't be sad/upset about what you not have") at the end of the report ... read more

Took the double decker train to Etten-Leur where I met Linda and her boyfriend Erwin. Linda is a good friend of my exchange student and both were really lovely people! They organised a day out for me in Antwerp, Belgium to visit the weird and wonderful museum that is Verbeke Foundation. As we crossed the boarder from the Netherlands to Begium, the roads got bumpier. The surrounding grounds of the museum looked like a dump site and the building itself was a freezing cold warehouse with an overgrown green house. The gerenal theme was to bring nature and ecology together. The exhibition had a large collection of dead animal installations, stuffed, rotting and other half carcasses hanging and stretched out to create a somewhat disturbing installation. Some works were inspired and copies of Damien Hurst's pieces, ... read more