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| Page Views: 2,396 Last Visit to Belgium: July, 2001 I Was Born Here | Maciej & Piotr visiting Belgium Summer 2001 by irisbe - last update: Aug 17, 2003 |
How it began I met Maciej in Virtual Places during one of my lunchbreaks. It is a chatprogram like no other. It was the first time he was there and he got into the travelroom.
I learned he was searching for a not expensive place to travel too, probably France because a friend went there to study and another place.
So I said... why not Belgium?
In Summer there is so much to do without you having to pay for it, if you plan it right.
And I offered him and his friend, if they liked camping, they could put up their tent in my backyard.
After a few e-mails we gained eachother's trust and they agreed to visit.
It was a great idea! They were excellent trustfully visitors, good mannered and very kind.
I hope I will be able to visit them in Poznan soon, that is where they were coming from.
They just finnished university and Piotr found himself a good job. Maciej has started his doctorate course and it is very tough.
I wanted to make here a short selection of the pictures we and they took during their staying in Belgium. |
Arrival on Sunday It was funny, Saturday evening as I returned home from of a b-day visit, I could have bet that when I would look around the corner of the garage a little tent was there... but no, the garden was empty.
Maciej and Piotr were dued to arrive on Sunday... but you know you can have that feeling...
Sunday morning at half past six I suddenly jumped up... and had that feeling I had to wake up now!!! I know in those cases I really have to follow my intuition. I ran down the stairs, just in time to be able to pick up the phone before it rang its last ring...
it was the police dept of Mortsel calling if I expected 2 visitors. They couldn't call me as the public cell was only operating on phonecards and they had the terrific idea to walk towards the police station and asked if they could help them.
oh!!! Ofcourse we were expecting them and we hurried to pick them up at the police station.
and... they already had arrived late Saturday but didn't want to disturb me by calling a day too early!
So that feeling on Saturday evening was correct!
They put up their little iglo tent under the tree and exhausted fell asleep around 8am.
I asked my neighbours several times if for once they could be a bit quiet... but hey... you can have one good neighbour but two ? mmmm very unlikely!
So by the time I was making plans to strangle a few they finally got silent.
After a few hours of sleep Maciej and Piotr woke up and we were already in the mood of making plans.
I had gathered a lot of info and maps together the previous days so they could chose the things that might interest them.
I suggested that first of all it would be nice if we would just discover the near area, so that they could try to orientate and find the way around.
I had some spare bicycles in the garage and we went out for a trip.
Passing the haunted house at Mussenburg (any one who is interested in the story can ask when they visit!), past the Basilic in Edegem, then towards the castle in Edegem.
This is the picture of the entrance of the castle. |
shooting skills When we followed the little road we saw these persons shooting arrows towards feathers on a huge pilar.
We call it in Dutch "de liggende wip".
Maciej and Piotr never saw this kind of shooting before and so we stopped.
I got off my bicycle and asked the people if we could watch for a moment and I explained why our interest.
In no time some one offered us to use his arrow and give it a try.
Piotr here could shoot when it was this guy's turn.
I though it was so very kind! |
The arrows... well you need to have a certain amount of power to be able to stretch it. |
This is the pilar that comes down to put new feathers on it... each feather has its value (points.
When the people heard Maciej and Piotr were Polish some of them started to talk in Polish!
By coincidence one of them was married to a Polish!
Some of the other people knew members of my family in law, so we got very familiar with eachother.
I definitly plan to cycle that road again next Summer and say hello to the guys! |
From one arrow to the other '-)
After or short and unexpected visit to the previous club, we cycled to Middelheim Open Air Museum (Park).
You can see a nice collection in my Antwerp travelogues or in my webshotsalbum of which you find the links on my Antwerp pages. |
Maciej and Piotr loved this one very much.
Agreed, it is a funny one! |
Here this one is funny as well ....
they look like goblins in the reflection! |
A nice picture with a lovely background of the Middelheim Park.
Any one who love sculptures, statues and Parks to visit this location! |
Walking in the park made us thirsty so we cycled to the university campus in Wilrijk (UIA-Campus site).
We had a nice refreshing beer at the terras of the tennis club.
Here on these courts tennis players like Sabine Appelmans and Kim Clijsters have been playing (been trained)in the past. |
We made a short cycling tour around the campus site.
Here we are at the terras of the cafetaria of the campus, a lovely spot!
Except for the drink, this day we didn't make any expenses. |
Monday we visited Berchem and Antwerp Next day we took the train from Mortsel Oude-God to Berchem Antwerp.
At a few steps from the station you find the lovely streets around Cogels Osylei. |
The houses here are lovely and you can hardly believe that not so many years ago there existed plans to take them all down (ah! project developers smelling profits... they are a true malignant cancer in a peaceful beautiful and art loving society!) |
Museum of Fine Arts The area of the Museum of Fine Arts is just renovated a few years ago. Now you can hang around there after your visit in one of the nice pubs nearby. It has a huge collection of paintings, 3 of those collections where "gifts" to the museum. |
Almost all on 1 picture (me? I am the photographer!) |
Antwerp 2001 attraction One of the most exotic attractions was this carousel. The owner designed and built it himself. I really really LOVED it! (to watch ofcourse! am too grown up to fit in those things!) |
You have to be about this size to take a ride on it! |
No guys! you are too big either! |
After all that walking around we got thirsty and went for a jenever in the jeneverbar at the corner of the Pelgrimstraat and the Reynderstraat. The pub is called the Vagant and you can taste more jenever then is healthy for you. It is not cheap... so we stayed with one each, but all different so we could taste all kinds of passing on our glasses :-) no it is not greedy! it is wise! jenever is too strong to drink too much of it ! |
In the Pelgrimstraat you can visit the pub De Pelgrom. You have to walk down to the basement, it is very pretty (but dark hehehe) there with candle light!!! Upstairs is a kind of museum of how the interior of the houses that time would have looked like, but I haven't been in it yet. |
City Hall Magnificient the City Hall, decorated with all those flags! The winner is who can find his country's flag the first! Or he who can put a country name on a flag! |
Statue of Brabo ah the story of Brabo, yep... it is a legend and there is much more popular phantasy in it then reality I am afraid :-) It was said that there lived a giant at Antwerp and he was a bit of an annoyance. So one day Brabo cut of this guy's hand and threw it into the river Scheldt. In Flemish it is called Handwerpen and we tell the people that it was changed in Antwerpen which is spelled different but almost sounds the same. But I will tell you the real story of the name of our city if you come over for a visit... |
Market and the Cathedral You have a wonderful marketsquare there with a nice view on the cathedral's tower. |
The Scheldt (Schelde) As the day was ending the sun was slowly going down and it gave nice views over the water. |
Yep... we did a lot of walking today! |
One of the touristic boats you can make a trip on. |
You can stroll on the terrace and watch the river. |
Or you can put in a coin and view what that girl is wearing (or not wearing??) at the other side, the leftbank, of the river. hey! this was joking '-) another interesting and cheap day! |
Saturday 21th July National holiday and ... GENTSE Wowww... no mercy for our visitors! Next day we go to Ghent!!!! It is "Gentse Feeste" and it is the 21st of July. On this day most places are open for visitors without payment (except the tower of the Sint Michiels, that was 0,5 euro and a lot of sweat!). |
Test your shooting skill! In the Steen (the castle) you can try out your skills with a crossbow at 1,20 euro! |
Afterwards you get your results with you. Yeah... they were not bad at all... I think I keep very friendly with the guys hahaha |
Het Steen And this is how the castle Het Steen looks like from the outside (with additional tourists that always have to block the view hehehe). |
wonderful spots on the canals You have so many nice places in Ghent! It is an adorable city but far too much forgotten by tourists and tourists agencies. Maybe it is a good thing? It might get too overcrowded if people found out how beautiful it is here! |
Sint Michiels (Saint Michael) If you have the courrage to climb all those stairs, you really get rewarded! What a panoramic view! |
I think we deserved a reward!!! I took a bottle of jenever with me and every one had his own little glass... and we drank to our succes and to good times! Cheers oh ... we only had one! The stairs are far too dangerous to go down drunk! Never try to do that! I am serious! It was a huge climbing up... don't make it a short descent! |
And some ignorant Dutch folks were, in their usual loud voices, wondering why we had put on the German flag??? I was very much tempted to make up a story that we remembered the invasion of the Germans in the second world war... or something like that but I bit my tongue '-) what a selfcontrol hahaha. So people... this is OUR BELGIUM FLAG yes... same colours, true... but the stripes vertical!!! and my goodness... THAT DAY WAS OUR NATIONAL HOLIDAY!!! We celebrated BELGIUM!!! |
ok... all that frustration and climbing called for another refreshment! At the evening we could watch different performances and some people really stay through all the night! The festivities take 10 succeeding days, the last one called the "day of the empty purses" when people are spending their last money. So... another wonderful day that didn't costed us too big a fortune! So you see... if you pick out your days and the right time, traveling in Belgium should not be that expensive. If you can find someone who can give you lodgment and can share dinner with you, you will skip the most expensive costs and you can give priority to other things like musea, drinks, souvenirs, going out. |
Sunday Helas!!!
All stories are ending.
On Sunday morning we brought Maciej and Piotr to the railstation in Berchem (Antwerp)
and waved them goodby, back home to Poznan!
But we are sure we are going to meet again, here or in Poznan!
It was really nice to have met them and I don't want to lose contact! |
The "guys" loved the area and made many pictures.
I have a travelogues of some of my pictures but if you want to view them all then follow the link in my Antwerp page to my webshots album. |
Arcazaar At the Cogels-Osylei we took tram 11 to Antwerp.
You don't follow a really nice track with that tram and you might get a wrong view of Antwerp, don't give up, hold on!
In Summer there are so many things to see, to do.
At the Sint Jansplein you had the construction of Alcazar.
It was a combination of coloured tents, a bit oriental looking and inside you had to take your shoes off.
There was this soft relaxing music all around you. |
You could find yourself a nice spot and sit down for a while, close your eyes, dream away. |
The light from outside was filtered through the coloured plastics of the tent and it provided really amazing effects.
I tried to put a few on these pictures, but believe me the real views can't be matched with the ones I can show in the pictures. |
It seems that the tent is endless and people are really like cocooning in those "holes". |
The tent has several different parts, this red one looks like the centre.
It some howe reminds me to an aorta? the gate away of the heart. |
The colours make nice contrats |
... a traveler in an unknown world.
I thought this one really looked SF! |
I think Piotr is a talented model!
The entrance was very cheap! 50 bfr, that is 1,20 Euro. |
After the Arcazaar, we went toward the river side.
Here we could follow the general rehearsal of a Guinee Circus Baobab that was going to perform that evening.
Piotr and Maciej and Eve stayed to watch the circus. |
Rudy was tired and wanted to go home.... |
so... I was very sad I had to leave as well and of what I heard later the circus was breath taking and my visitors said they never ever have seen this kind of performance before.
They were very enthousiast about it! |
It was a complete show with music and dance and acrobacy.
This circus was part of the free atractions of the Summer of Antwerp 2001!
So... we only spend a trainticket (1 euro), a tramticket (0,25 euro) and the entrance of Arcazaar (and an icecream '-) hahaha) |
Tuesday they went to visit Brussels As Poitr and Maciej were 25 and 26, they could appeal to a cheap multipass train ticket (10 trips for a big reduced price). They used the frist 4 to visit Brussels. I had to work that day, but provided with a map and a guide I had at home, and a few suggestions, I was sure they would make the best out of it. They visited the HEIZEL with the Atomium. |
They went to the Strip museum |
And did some sightseeing around. At this pictures is the flowermarket on the market square. |
Visit to Bruges on Wednesday Wednesday we went for a visit to the ancient city Bruges. We went by train, they used their railpass ticket. Here you can see the beguinage. This type of beguinage is called the "square" type as it has a square in the middle and the houses are build around. |
at one of the entrances (or exits?) of the beguinage. |
Just across that little bridge of the beguinage is a resting place for the horses and carriages. The horses can drink some fresh water here. |
Belfry If you are in Bruges you sure must make all those steps up in the belfry! It gives you a great panoramic view over the city! I forgot the price of the entrance ticket, but it was not that expensive. |
Upstairs you can see the mechanics that makes the bells sound. Stay around until the mechanism starts! |
You can see in 4 directions. On the balcony stones you can read the names of different cities and their direction. |
Look up and watch that huge bell |
Rain or sun, Bruges is pretty and there is so much to see! Here Maciej and Piotr are in front of the wonderful city hall that houses the Gothic Hall. |
It is a must to view the hall! you can get a combined ticket with the house called "de Grieffie" and you get an audiophone. Entrance is affordable :-) |
Cool! Looks like Bruges has a new city Mayor! and he is already very busy making phonecalls! |
Chapel of the Holy Blood relict Just next to the City Hall, in the right corner you an visit the Chapel of the Holy Blood relict. No entrance fee, and it is marvelous :-) |
There is a guestbook where you can leave your comments! (or read other's) But the Japanese comments are a bit difficult to read, I must admitt '-) |
Every where wonderful stain windows |
At the Dyver. A last picture before leaving home and have some nice dinner! |
19th July Leuven I couldn't join the guys on the trip to Leuven, which is a pity because they missed the big beguinage. You see, Leuven has 2 of them, a small and a big one! But it is nice for an afternoon walk this place. It is about the most famous student's city of Belgium. I am sure you'll like it! You get there very easy by train. |
Friday, 20th July visit in Antwerp Friday you don't have to pay any entrance to the city musea... so that safes a lot of money! During Summer there is so much to see that you can spend many days walking through Antwerp without getting bored. |
Plantin Moretus The inneryard of one of the most extremely interesting musea in Antwerp, the one of Plantin Moretus, previous home and workplace of a printers family that went over different generations. In the 16th century, this place was about the biggest provider ever of the books sold all over the world. So it is a must to visit. Come on Friday and have a free visit. You only have to pay the audiophone (was 2,5 euro then) and you have the choice out of 4 languages. |
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 Comments for irisbe about Belgium | | | | |
RhineRoll Thu Dec 7, 2006 15:28 UTC
I very much doubt the alternative suggestion will happen to me :)) | gkitzmil Thu Nov 2, 2006 22:36 UTC
Yes, I drink all that I can. I have found three good places to get Belgian Beer. I've not seen Boon here yet, though. | pieter_jan_v Mon Sep 25, 2006 18:11 UTC
MANY LOST BEERS HERE! PJ | lmkluque Mon Sep 25, 2006 17:13 UTC
I don't drink beer but, lLoved your Tourist Trap tips! Interesting, informative and humourous! I'll come back when you've finished. |
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