Grote Markt and Sint-Romboutskathedraal from under the City Hall — Grote Markt and Sint-Romboutskathedraal from under the City Hall

Mechelen City and Cathedrals

August 12, 2015 in Travel

I finally finished edited photographs from my last trip to Europe, just in time for a new trip leaving this week. Unfortunately there was a last minute problem and I'm now home indefinitely! Hopefully back again soon to take more photos, now that my backlog is running dry! A lot of this collection covers architecture and cathedrals of Mechelen, Belgium.

Grave marker in the floor of Sint-Romboutskathedraal — Grave marker in the floor of Sint-Romboutskathedraal

Cathedrals have long been one of my favourite subjects, I guess due to the impressive old architecture and stone work, historical significance, and they often have impressive paintings and sculptures on display from renowned artists. I really like the darker and more run-down ones in particular, and anything in a gothic style, although travelling light means I haven't always had the ideal camera equipment on hand for ultra-wide angles with long exposures on tripods etc. But I do the best I can with what I have - I had planned to travel a bit heavier this trip, but not to be right now unfortunately.

The Grote Markt / Great Market / Town Square etc

Mechelen and the Flemish Béguinages

July 31, 2015 in Travel

Part of my day in Mechelen, Belgium was spent first looking for, and then wandering around an old part of town called the 'Large Béguinage' (Groot Begijnhof). No idea how to pronounce that, and what I was saying to myself would probably not be recognisable if I asked for directions! But anyway, a Béguinage is an enclosed complex built for Béguines which are a particular flavour of Nun. Béguinages were built from the 13th Century onwards in France and the Low Countries. The Flemish Béguinages (in Flanders in Belgium) are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site as a group, with a nice description on the site here.

The Large Béguinage was interesting to walk around, although not really dramatic as it merges into the regular 'old' streets around, which can be hard to know if you're quite in the right place sometimes! The Amsterdam 'Begijnhof' version is smaller but more enclosed with a big central courtyard, and probably more obviously 'Nunnish'. The Béguinage was centered around their church, the baroque Begijnhofkerk, which will be included in my next post on Mechelen, and was nice and dark and opressive, just to my taste!

The Great Flower Carpet of Brussels

July 12, 2015 in Travel, Museum

Once every two years a giant flower carpet is installed in the Grand Place (main square) of Brussels, which is 75m long x 24m wide, 1800 square metres of begonias containing around a million flowers. The carpet is sketched on the ground and quicky installed by 120 volunteers in only 4 hours! And then lasts about 3 days before it starts to wilt and is packed up again. I'd seen pictures of this on postcards on previous visits to Brussels, but I was fortunate that my work trip last September aligned with the correct weekend, and I found out with just a few days to spare. I quickly booked a funny little French speaking bed & breakfast on the outskirts of Brussels as it was quite far for a day trip, and went for a visit! This year the carpet was a giant Turkish rug design to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Turkish immigration in Belgium.

Upon arriving in Brussels I spent much of the day at the Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire (Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History), quite a large and interesting museum in the slightly old fashioned and slightly worn out style typical of Belgium that I like so much! Being the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI, there was also a large and excellent exhibition about the great war.

After the museum I went to check out the flower carpet, which was as impressive as I expected, although of course it was very densely touristed and difficult to approach! I waited patiently to get to the front of the barriers at a few spots around the carpet for some different angles, and was jealous of the people with inside connections and nice viewpoints out the windows of the old guild houses surrounding the Grand Place! I stayed in town late to also see the music and light show over the carpet.

Mechelen City and Cathedrals

Mechelen and the Flemish Béguinages

The Great Flower Carpet of Brussels

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