Hello again! Still
catching up on all my adventurous posts!!
After Sophia and I conferenced real hard in Bruges, we
headed out to explore the rest of Belgium for a few days! On Sunday, August 21 we caught an afternoon
train to Antwerp. We stayed in a super
Airbnb there in an up-and-coming neighborhood, so we stayed around the flat for
dinner that evening and went to bed pretty early.
Monday morning, we met Sophia’s friend from UCSB (who now
lives in Antwerp) for breakfast. It was
neat to talk to someone who had done research travel during her PhD and then
decided to stay abroad! She showed us to
the Antwerp Cathedral, and we gawked at the gaudy Rubens paintings throughout. Lots of dramatic and theatric Baroque—totally
over the top!
 |
| Antwerp Cathedral |
 |
| Antwerp Cathedral |
 |
| Antwerp Cathedral |
Around lunchtime, we caught a quick train to nearby Ghent to
see the cathedral and famous Ghent Altarpiece.
The outside of the cathedral was under quick a bit of scaffolding so it
wasn’t much to look at, but the real treasures of Ghent lie within!!
 |
| City of Ghent |
 |
| Ghent Belfry |
We made a bee-line for the altarpiece, which is now on
display in a small climate- and crowd-controlled room near the entrance of the
cathedral. The altarpiece is behind
glass, but you are still able to get quite close to admire all of the sumptuous
detail (
check out this website that allows you to zoom to see the details). Of course this is the Holy Grail
of the movie The Monuments Men, and is one of the most famous paintings of the
so-called “Northern Renaissance.” In my
opinion, it has certainly earned the right to be considered such! Sophia and I absorbed it for a long while,
whispering back and forth about certain details and just staring in silence
too. Truly remarkable. (Unfortunately, no photography whatsoever is allowed.)
 |
Lieutenant Daniel J. Kern and Karl Sieber examining a panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, 1945.
(Thomas Carr Howe papers, Archives of American Art) |
 |
| In this still from the 2014 movie The Monuments Men, George Clooney lectures in front of a slide of the Ghent Altarpiece. |
 |
| Photograph (from the web) of the Ghent Altarpiece with wings closed |
 |
| Photograph (from the web) of Ghent Altarpiece with wings opened |
We spent the afternoon in Ghent, took the train back to
Antwerp, had some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had at a very
sketchy-looking restaurant, and returned to our Airbnb for the night. In the morning (Tuesday) we had a few hours
before our next train, so we split up to make the most of our time. Sophia visited the Rubens House and I went to
the Museum Mayer van den Bergh. The Van den Bergh is a small(ish) house museum with a SUPER medieval collection! One sculpture in particular stands out—the
sculpture of Christ and St. John is extremely well-known and I appreciated
seeing it in person. So much bigger than
I imagined!
 |
| Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp |
 |
| Christ and Saint John, Master Heinrich von Konstanz, ca. 1280-1290 |
 |
| Christ and Saint John, Master Heinrich von Konstanz, ca. 1280-1290 |
|
 |
| Christ and Saint John, Master Heinrich von Konstanz, ca. 1280-1290 |
|
Tuesday afternoon, August 23, we hopped on a train to
Brussels. We arrived around 2:00 or 3:00
and had until 6:00-ish to make it through part of the enormous museum complexes in
Brussels! We decided to focus on the
museum of “Old Masters” to really get the bang for our buck. It was a total feast for our senses, and we
did a pretty good job taking our time while also covering a lot of ground.
 |
| Sophia in the larger-than-life Rubens Room! |
 |
| Hieronymus Bosch, Temptation of St. Anthony, 1501 |
 |
| Bosch Detail |
 |
| Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562 |
 |
| Bruegel Detail |
 |
| Bruegel Detail |
That evening, our last in Belgium, we went to a totally cool
little restaurant called Restobieres.
Finding the restaurant was quite an adventure in itself, but we
eventually got there. The chef was a
large, chatty guy who frequented our table to ask how we were liking our meals,
and the interior was decorated with all kinds of antique and vintage housewares. Totally my style! We splurged a bit for our final night, and
headed home happy and ready to crash.
 |
| Travel Partner Extraordinaire, Sophia! |
Wednesday morning, we got up early for Sophia to catch her
flight back to the States and for me to catch my train back to Wolfenbüttel. From Bruges to Antwerp to Ghent back to
Antwerp and then to Brussels—we sure made the most of our week in Belgium!!!
Next time on Frau Bevin’s Adventures: long-time friend
Melody joins in the fun in a whirlwind roadtrip across Germany, with stopovers
in Austria, Switzerland, and France!
