Antwerping
A busy day of seeing the sights (we are having a few days in Belgium).
(Wot is this minimalist thing with hotels that means there is never enough anywhere to put things? sigh)
First thing we went to look at some architecture near the station (turn of the century houses, v eclectic, from faux-Renaissance to Art Nouveau via various divagations): although all the weather forecasts I'd looked at said it was going to be warm and sunny all day it was in fact raining and a bit chilly, though brightened up eventually.
Then Rubens' House - chokker, including parties of quite small schoolkids, WTF, but at least there was not much in the way of Symbolickal Nekkid Ladybits on show among the plethora of artworks.
After lunch to the Plantin-Moretus Museum, which has quite a lot to offer via family which was MAJOR in printing in Antwerp for several centuries and did very well out of it, while advancing the state of the art of printing, knowledge, keeping in with the government, the Church, etc.
Also did the Cathedral, in which some items from the currently closed for refit Museum of Fine Arts are displayed - also has two Rubens altarpieces. There was also a set of carved 12 apostles + 12 female figures, alas and sigh, representing abstract concepts.
By the time we were done there it was coming up the time cultural sites were about to close, and we were ready to put our feet up.
ETA Felt I'd left something out: the Maagdenhuis Museum in the former girls' orphanage: which, compared to the Foundling Museum, is a bit less memorable, even if a lot older. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2829747.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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