Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent

After Bruges, our next stop was Brussels, which we used as a base to explore two smaller cities, Antwerp and Ghent, which are each less than 45 minutes by train.

First, however, we wandered around Brussels a bit, including to its spectacular main square.

While wandering near the square, we found a street that had literally seven or eight chocolate shops in a row. We still wonder how they all survive.

The one museum I wanted to visit in Brussels is dedicated to one of my favorite artists, the surrealist Rene Magritte. Although many of his greatest and most well-known works are in other museums, we very much enjoyed seeing so many of his works in one place. We also learned that Magritte painted numerous Impressionist style pieces. In addition, we were introduced to the works of Jean-Michel Folon, a later Belgian artist who clearly was inspired by Magritte. In addition to paintings in the museum, some of Folon's sculptures were displayed around the city, including this one, which made a great view even more interesting.

After an enjoyable afternoon in Brussels, and a very good traditional Belgian meal, we set out the next morning for a day in Antwerp. One of the most famous and beautiful sites in Antwerp is the train station, so we arrived at our first tourist destination.

Next, we headed to the Museum Plantin-Moretus, which tells the story of a printing business begun in the middle of the 16th century, and endured for nine generations of the Moretus family. Our regular readers may recall that we visited the Guttenberg Museum in Mainz last summer where we learned a lot about the origin of printing. The Museum Plantin-Moretus extended our knowledge and showed us how important (and lucrative) the printing business became in the centuries after Gutenberg's creation.

The museum is in the building out of which the business was run; it was also the Moretus family's home. The building itself was impressive with its beautiful inner courtyard, but the history of the printing business inclunding a display of the two oldest still existing printing presses in the world, along with many other rare items in the collection, was amazing.

After our time at the museum, and a yummy Greek lunch, we spent a bit of time walking around Antwerp in the cold. We got to see the Het Steen, a medieval fortress, which is Antwerp's oldest building, as well as the ubiquitous central plaza.

On our last day in Belgium, we traveled to Ghent. There, we visited the City Museum, which taught us a lot about the history and importance of the area as Ghent had a very central role in the cloth business. In fact, one display showed that around the year 1400, Ghent was one of the larger cities in Europe. Of course, over subsequent centuries, Ghent's population ebbed and flowed while that of cities such as London and Paris grew dramatically.

Later we walked around the old part of Ghent, which is really quite beautiful (although it would have probably looked even better on a warm, sunny day). Ghent, like Antwerp, also has an old medieval castle / fortress in its center called Gravensteen. It's quite a sight mixed in with the classical northern European facades and architecture.

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And that was the end of our time in Belgium. We only wish we could have enjoyed a Belgian beer outside in the sunshine, but the dreary weather followed us everywhere. More soon from The Netherlands.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana