Who is that? #5

We have a winner!  It is indeed Antwerp's #2 Painter, A. Van Dyck.  Check out the beard.  He's really stylin'.  Could start a trend.

The leader board after 5: 
Kris (2 in a row 1st day!  30 pts
Alexander 20 pts (1 & 3)
Scott P 15 pts (1st day #2)
You? 0 pts - C'mon....

Ok, this one is a little harder, I think.  

Somebody may recognize him, but if you don't - put on your thinking caps.  

Use what you know about us, it will give you clues about him...

It's like another life. Part Two

Our Flat, one end to the other

When in Belgium, do as the  Belgians?

It really is pretty easy to do. As you know, getting around is pretty easy, even for a suburban American, but that is just the beginning of the differences.

Our apartment here is small compared to what we are used to. In California, I don't think anyone would describe our house as "big" by local standards. Still, it is probably three times the size of the space we live in here.  Our flat has just three rooms (four, if you count the toilet)  The main space is a kitchen/living/dining room. It is pretty big, one function sort of just blends into the next. It's compact, but it works. The kitchen is probably not more than 100 sq ft, but it has everything you need and probably as much counter space as we have at home. Across the way there is a dining area that could seat eight in a pinch but I'm not sure when you would ever need it.

If you were planning a gathering of friends there are lots of options for that, just steps from our place. Must be a dozen pubs and cafés nearby and one,  'the Café Belga' has enormous spaces where large groups gather pretty much every night of the week. With public space so convenient, who needs a private space? I don't know if I would like to raise three kids in this apartment, but for us, as we are now, space is not a problem.

We do have just the one TV here though, so whatever one of us is watching the other one gets, like it or not. I suppose you could go into the bedroom to read or just escape the TV, but honestly the TV is not on call that much for us. There's just not all that much being broadcast that we find interesting. You have probably two dozen channels, three of which are in English (CNN International, BBC & BBC World). But after an hour or so on those even I have had quite enough. They repeat stories a lot.  MC watches the French-French game shows but questions tend to be skewed towards things French people know and then in French to boot. I don't do too well. As I said before Dutch TV is often US programs with subtitles.  Often better than nothing, but only slightly. I am afraid I am beginning to watch a sit-com called 'Big Bang Theory'.  Not what I would do at home but then we don't really have internet, so we don't really have options. We have a wireless contract and a GSM stick but it is metered and video burns up the monthly allowance pretty quick. I do miss the Wi-Fi, but our situation is the product of our short stay. If you were here longer we could sign a contract and get the home internet and we would watch even less TV.

Horta and Art Nouveau in Brussels

This Saturday was a beautiful sunny day in Brussels, and after being here for several weeks now, we have come to appreciate these lovely days. I don't want to say that the weather here is bad but the word "grey" would be a much more accurate description.  So we had to take advantage of this opportunity.

Brussels and Belgium are known for many things, it's sprouts, frites, mussels, endives, chocolate, waffle and beer among others but also for it's "art nouveau" architecture by Victor Horta.  There is a whole circuit one can walk to admire all these fabulous buildings dating back to the early 1900's.  We have certainly come across a few of them already in our wanderings around the city but it was pretty hap hazard and no way to really appreciate them.  Now was the time to see them including the interior of the house he built for himself.

A little background on Victor (from Wikipedia), 

Victor, Horta (6 January 1861 - 9 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Indeed, Horta is one of the most important names in Art Nouveau architecture; the construction of his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels in 1892-3 means that he is sometimes credited as the first to introduce the style to architecture from the decorative arts.

The first house we went to see is at Place Ambiorix, an upscale neighborhood, across the street from a fabulous park.  Although the front entrance was under some kind of renovation one could still marvel at this building only 13 meters wide (about 40 feet).  The other houses were clustered in a couple adjacent neighborhoods and were quite interesting. Brussels' residential architecture is nice, but for the most part not all that exceptional.  An eclectic mix of old (200 years or so) and new (yesterday) and then here and there you find these Art Noveau gems folded in to the mix.  They are gorgeous from the outside and you wonder what they are like on the inside.

Well, you don't really have to wonder.  Several are open to the public, including the house Horta built himself. It is preserved as a museum and was something quite surprising and magical. You had to queue up outside since they only let a few people in at a time. But it was worth the wait.  Once they let you in the door, it really was like they were letting you into Horta's home.  They had much of the original furniture and fittings as he used it.  A lot of the rooms had the furniture specially constructed and permanently 

affixed. He was big on built-ins.  In the bedroom he had a closet that housed what appeared to be a unisex urinal that swung out so that you would not have to take the 20 foot walk to the "Crapper".  Yes, they had an original, gen-u-ine Crapper ®.  Even it was beautiful.

The rooms were built off a central staicase and the floors were staggered with a room or two off of each landing.  They said no pictures but not everyone follows rules (Scott could not resist the Crapper) Someone has taken them so here is the link to experience the beauty of this house.  Hope you enjoy as much as we did.  More Photos

Who is that? #4

Here's the cupcake, I promised.  Even if you aren't first everybody should be a winner this week.

Current standings before this post:

Alexander 20 pts (1 & 3)
Scott P 15 pts (1st day #2)
You? 0 pts - C'mon....

BTW, You are still not commenting (enough)!  Keeping this thing interesting is a cooperative effort.  Your comments don't have to be brilliant, just stream of consciousness.  Why should what you write be any different that what we do?

It's like another life. Part One

You may have noticed.  As much as we love California, we also love to get away from it for extended periods. It's like trying out a different life. Could you live the way they do?

Breakfast, from our kitchen window

I think I could get used to Belgium pretty easily. So what's different? First, there is living without a car. In Danville, it simply can't be done. I remember once trying to take the bus home from school, with one of the cars in the shop. There are buses at DVC and there is a bus stop at the end of our block. Why not give it a try, I thought. So I get on the bus at DVC, 20 min. later I'm at BART in Walnut Creek, 20 min. after that I am in Alamo at the bus stop for the line that runs by our house. I checked the schedule,  turns out the next bus will arrive in only 16 hours! It seems the bus only runs for the high school and hence only twice a day. The nearest bus to my house is about 4 miles away.  You really do need the car.

Here, I live 100 steps from a bus stop that will take me to the train station and from there to wherever I want to go. Or if I walk a little further west, I catch a line that goes to one of my two schools (There is a French & a Dutch university. Completely separate.  An interesting story for  another post.)

Place Flagey, Transportation Hub

If I go east there is a stop for the bus to the other school. The bus costs 45 € per month because we don't qualify for any of the many discounts a Belgian might claim. About 1.5 € a day. Compare that to BART. The trip to school is a 2 min. walk, & a 7 min. ride.

No, I don't miss the car at all. Last weekend we were on the train to Antwerp. We left the house about 8:30 we got there about 10:00. Cost for two door-to-door round-trip including metro? 17 €.  Amsterdam would be a bit more maybe 35 €. Pretty good, pretty cheap.  Even a Californian can live without a car.

She's Baaaaack!

Antwerp Centraal

I really liked Antwerp! It is a cross between much smaller  Bruges and much bigger Brussels  It is very beautiful with a lot fewer tourists, although I have to remember that it is November and there are a lot fewer tourists in general.

The day had a great start.  You get off the train and are amazed.  The train station in Antwerp is work of art.  You can also see it on YouTube in sound of music singalong done a while ago.  

Then, right outside the train station, we met a local who walked us around and showed us his city.  We were looking at our map & he asked if we 

needed help.  He was a very enthusiastic tour guide and his English was excellent. He and his wife had traveled to the US many times.  We told him we were from the Bay area and he said "close to the Napa Valley, the most beautiful place?"  I think that's why he decided to spend some time with us.  It's good to be from California.

He highlighted some of the sites we had to see and where to have a fabulous lunch. Popoff.  A little hole in the wall place we would have never considered. I had a

fabulous pot pie style dish.  It had salmon, peas, brocoli, green beans in a very light thin cream sauce and was topped with thinly sliced potatoes, carrots and leaks.   

Scott had a Flemish specialty, waterzooi, a chicken dish in a cream sauce. Werner (our guide) said we had to have their dessert, but we were stuffed.  What to do?  We went back just before catching the train home.  I had Apple tart, Scott cranberry-pear.  Werner also gave us some details that one could not find in tour books as well as his personal opinions on the state of Belgium.  It was a great start to a great day.    

We visited a few churches and a great museum housed in Peter Paul Rubens house. It's really 2 museums in one since there is the art but also the house preserved with furniture from his day and a beautiful garden.  All in all a great place to visit but be ready to walk.  We clocked 10.33 miles that day!

MC is on strike!

A bas le Blog!

Inspired by the daily scenes of strife on the streets of France that we see on our TV, MC is going native!

She has some grievances. First, like the French she does not particularly like to work (write blog posts). She needs to be motivated. She wants comments.

"What's the point of writing? I don't think anyone even reads them." she says.  "Oh, I'm sure somebody reads them." I reply. "How do you know?" she says "No one ever comments..."

So there you go. Want her thoughts about Antwerp? You are going to have to demand them...

In Bruges...

So a few weeks ago we spent the weekend in Bruges. It really did deserve a blog post before now but (insert excuse here).

Last night I got re-inspired. The movie "In Bruges" was on Dutch TV. Dutch TV is pretty cool. They subtitle everything.  Sometimes even the dutch.  I can't figure that out, but it might be because the speaker speaking Flemish and the Dutch need some help. I know sometimes when I watch the BBC, I could use subtitles.

Anyway, Bruges is like a frikkin' fairytale.

It really is! The town is built around canals which always seem to impart a magical feel to a place. Then, its heyday was the 17th century and most of its buildings stem from that era. So the architecture is spectacular. It's a lot like Venice in a lot of ways. There's nothing in particular to do, so the thing is just to walk around. It seems every second store sells chocolate and being it's Belgium they all look pretty good.

I'm pretty sure you could "do Bruges" in a day, but MC and I decided to spend the night. Turned out to be a good choice. Bruges was celebrating the 500th anniversary of their bell tower, an the event that only happens once every 500 years, it seems. They had a big party on the central square with musical groups from near (a Dutch choir) far, (a group from Spain) and then some apparently really big stars. 'Scala' is a teen girls choir that covers pop & rock tunes. They have started to hit it big with themes for Hollywood movies. They apparently did the music for the trailer for 'the Social Network'. They put on a good show but after a while the next song starts to sound a lot like the last one. I think I liked the local group that did a Dutch version of 'City of New Orleans' much better.

Scott & MC at 'the Lake of LOVE'

Bruges is like a frikkin' fairytale. There is no corner you turn without a spectacular view. We took a tour by boat, ate at a café on the horse taxi route where dinner was punctuated by the constant clip clops of hooves on cobble stones...

Even in October it was full of tourists. That you wonder what it's like in July.  Probably a lot like Disneyland in July. I'm glad we were there in October.