Low Countries - Part 3

January 26 – The Hague really made me realize how spoiled I was having a friend living in Belgium. I had planned absolutely nothing before I arrived in Belgium and every day Bart had new places and new ideas for where to go. What’s more, having a PhD in History, means that he can give more details about most of the cities we went to than any guide book. The Hague was fun and interesting but would have been much better had I a local guide to take me around. Checked out the museum Mauritshuis – give me a few years of living in Europe visiting museums and I’ll have started to see enough art. So much to see and so much to learn. By the end of my visit though I had correctly identified what century a couple of paintings came from and identified the cities that were being painted based on the cathedrals and palaces visible. Kind of a neat sensation to still be able to visit the places that appear in paintings from the 15th century. Another bizarre panorama painting like the one in Waterloo but this time of the coast line just out of The Hague and in better shape. Lastly, I visited the Prison Gate Museum and got to see all the wonderfully pleasant things that were done to people in prisons back in the day, thank goodness we don’t do such things as torture any more.

Beers – Leffe, Poker, Westmalle Dubbel

January 27 – Back in Belgium with Bart as my guide again on a visit to Brugge! Visited a church that has the only Michaelangelo sculpture in the low countries – nice, but I don’t have much of an eye for statues. We wandered around the park space that used to be the city wall and looked at the windmills, the town gate and finally a human powered crane with the big hamster wheel. The nice part about visiting Belgium in the winter is that there are way fewer tourists so pictures turn out nicer and it is much easier to get around. Besides, it’s not that cold. The highlight of the day was going up the belfry and getting to hear the bells ring for the hour. The gear works are all exposed and a huge cylinder with movable pegs on it turns every 15 minutes to trigger levers that ring the various bells to play a certain tune. Apparently the next time the song is going to be changed is in 2008. I think this would be my dream job, travelling from town to town maintaining and repairing clock works and remixing the carrolins. This could be the highlight of my whole time here…

Beers – Palm, Brugs, Petrus Dubbelbruin, Brugse Tripel

January 28 – Bart and I took his parents car and drove down to Bouillon in the French part of Belgium to visit a different type of castle. Perched on the top of a small mountain with the river looping around three sides and the mountain having been cut away in parts to make shear cliffs it was had to believe that the castle was taken once and only regained by some clever trickery of a bishop. The strange influence that religious beliefs can hold over large groups of people never ceases to amaze me. Happened to be there to see a presentation (in French of course) on hawks and vultures. Amazing looking birds, but the fact that they are released only briefly to preform for the audience kind of depresses me. One vulture apparently flies up to heights of 10000m into temperatures that reach -60C which struck me because that was our cruising altitude and the outside temperature when we flew from Vancouver to Amsterdam. Enjoyed some of the twisty roads on the way back to Mechelen. Bart’s mother went all out for my last night and cooked up a huge amount of mussels and I got put in the middle of a debate as to which of the four batches was the best. I thought they were all good although I had to sit for quite a while afterwards to recover. I am still amazed at how well I was treated there and am immensely grateful for everything that Bart and his parents did for me. I was sorry to leave.

Beers – Diekirch, Ciney Bruin, Duvel

January 29 – Arrived in Amsterdam in the afternoon and after getting set up in the hostel went to the Van Gogh museum. A very impressive collection (alas, Starry Night is in New York) but really busy. On a different floor there was an exhibit on animals and humans relation with them. The funest part was an interactive exhibit that allowed you to draw the profile and cross section of a fish and then release it into a “tank” with other fish. No sooner had my fish been introduced then it killed another fish and then proceeded to mate at a furious rate with all the other fish. Ten minutes after I initially released it, the healthy offspring were still hard at it (pun intended). I think I’m a little disturbed by the amount of pride I feel towards this, can’t be healthy.

Beers – De Koninck, Amstel Gold, Brand

January 30 – Went to the Rijks Museum for the morning which is undergoing renovations so only a portion of the exhibit was available but that still took several hours to go through. A thorough focus on the Dutch golden years. I wandered over to Anne Frank’s house but was very disappointed. Very little reflection on the Holocaust and mostly just blown up sections of her diary to read, also really crowded. Fortunately the day ended on an upswing when I met up with my cousin Michael who lives in Amsterdam and took me for a bit of a tour (pubs included). I could handle going back to Amsterdam with a friend to check out more of it and maybe have a little more energy too.