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Published: June 23rd 2011
Great Architectural detail!
All this for just a downspout! Wednesday, June 22, 2011
First, Happy Birthday to our youngest daughter! Have a wonderful day celebrating! While I was up and about early, Jean was sure that she should sleep until noon - or at least sleep until she was sure she could sleep no more. By 8am I think I "guilt-ed" her into thinking she should be up - as I was up, bed made, breakfast eaten, showered and dressed!
We began our day heading back to the bike shop we had found, only to be told that no, they did not rent bikes. The young man sent us to the Central train station. Here we found bikes for rent (red bikes) that are checked in and out of parking stations through out town, set up like a borrowing short commuter stations. They are set up to have the bikes back every 20 minutes - ok that didn't sound like it would work. So we went on to see the "Yellow Bike" rental station - located at the other end of the train station. Here we were told that they had just rented our their last 150 bikes to a "group". Like WOW - how would you like to be
Commuters
WOW - this is at the central Antwerp train station - ALOT of people bike to the train station, park their bikes and then go on from here! a group of 150 yellow bikes in Antwerp!
From there we were told to try another bike rental place that was located downtown on the Schelde River - under the bridge, by the Toilette!
As we walked through the central train station - we couldn't help but notice an abundance of Diamond Shops! Ends up that the central Diamond district is located here - with over 70% of the worlds diamonds sales coming from Antwerp! An industry that is in the 90 Billion Euro range! Like wow - makes one think they should buy a diamond broach or ring or something!
We meandered around several blocks for a good long time only to finally look back and realize that we had only gone a short distance from the train station - ok, but now we were finally on the main street, full of shops and restaurants that looked like it would take us down to the Schelde River. So we began to enjoy the architecture and statues!
Our first statue that we came across was of David Teniers, a Flemish artist that was born in Antwerp.
Though his ambition led him at times to try his skill
More Bikes
Safe and out of the rain, so great to see so many bikes! in large religious, historical and mythological compositions, his claim to fame depends chiefly on his landscapes and paintings of peasants carousing, which are marked by a healthy sense of humor. He had four sons that were also painters and died and Antwerp in 1649. That is a long time to be remembered by a statue!
The we came upon a statue of Antoon (or Anthony) Van Dyck, he was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of King Charles I of England and Scotland and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. He was born to very rich parents in Antwerp - hmm, maybe that is why he got a statue!
Antique and lace shops, restaurants and beer, little chocolate shops, post cards and cathedrals. The Cathedral of Our Lady was still under renovation/preservation but we lite a candle and said prayers for loved ones. The church's spire is over 400 feet high . Although Napoleon took two famous paintings from this church to France, The Raising of the
Cross and The Descent from the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens, they were returned to the cathedral in the 19th century.
We found a department store and wandered through the children's sections, wondering why someone in Europe would want a shirt that said "Dayton, Ohio"? We were excited to come across the cafeteria on the top floor - as we had learned in the past that this is a great place to eat lunch, and where all the locals go. Was great fun to people watch - all the ladies out for the day in heals and dresses!
The information place was staffed by a man that told Jean - "shall I take your map away since you are not following it?" when we wanted to be sure we knew which direction we were headed, and asked more than once, his dry sense of humor came out with "Can you handle this?" We laughed and headed out to the plaza - coming across the statue of Brabo. The Grote Market is one of the most gilded arenas of Belgium, Brabo is a celebrated Roman soldier that freed the port of Antwerp by defeating the giant Antigoon and throwing
his severed hand into the river.
A single severed hand is a common token of Antwerp, you can even buy chocolate hands!
We finally made it to bike shop (the lady that rents bikes, also takes your Euros to use the Toilette, (cross training?) . The bikes were not the best - but they were the only ones we had found - so we were fitted for bikes, and then left to figure out how to get back to our flat. We knew we didn't want to bike back through the busy retail sections of town. So we headed out to take a very wide loop around town, headed back along the train route and hoping we could find our way.
With map in hand, standing at an intersection, a man stopped and asked us for directions - he seemed distressed that we only spoke English. Did we look like locals? I took one wrong turn, but we corrected and were headed in the right direction again. Then I found us riding toward the traffic - opps, so we darted across the road and got headed the right direction - no worries, no traffic was anywhere in
sight.
We had a great ride back to the flat, through the parks, and always finding a bike lane and always enjoying the cars that yield to bikes!
After we got back to the flat we ventured out to get some groceries, then enjoyed our left over lasagne and wine outside on our mini-patio.
Thursday is a biking day - great fun
Kathleen and Jean Biking Belgium 2011
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Lynn Kraklau
non-member comment
The Great Adventure
Hi Cousins, Thanks for sharing your travels, I am so enjoying reading your blog. Stay safe and have a great time, although I don't think you need any encouragement! Love and Hugs, Lynn