FLANDERS (Antwerp, Gent, Brugge, Ostend, Leuven, Hasselt) Sept 21-22. 2021
Observations
1. Bicycles. Flemish Belgium may be more bicycle mad than Holland. The majority of the bikes are unlike anything in Canada – clunky with a large down tube, usually no crossbar, curved handlebars, and almost universally with at least one pannier. They are ridden at a very leisurely pace. Most don’t bother locking their bikes. There doesn’t seem much need for electric bikes as this is a completely flat country.
Surprisingly, when you go to Wallonia (the French part of Belgium, there is not a bicycle to be seen.
Bicycles add a difficult aspect to driving. They are very entitled and must be watched carefully. They behave very lawfully.
2. Houses. All brick, 2-story with no front yard adjoining the sidewalk. Very neat and tidy
3. Speed zones are ubiquitous. Roads in the countryside are narrow one lanes.
4. School trips. Everywhere I went, there were whole classrooms on a walkabout
Croonaert Woods. This was a long drive from France, one where the roads get progressively smaller until I was finally parked where no one could pass me. When I got there, the only way to enter is with a ticket purchased in a town five kms away – 4 E. There was a button that connected to a phone. I gave them a piece of my mind.
One can see virtually 100% of the exhibit through the fence (topped with barbed wire to make sure nobody could climb over). It consists of a small series of WWI trenches that have been reconstructed with vertical wood posts intertwined with thin tree boughs. All was in Flemish so I didn’t miss much. OMG
The ticket can be purchased at Tourism Heuvelland in Kemmel.
Spoilbank WWI cemetery. I passed this small cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers – 437 British, 16 Canadian, and 68 Australian. 750,000 men were killed and are in 1000 war cemeteries and 2000 civil cemeteries in Belgium and France. There was a good description of the Western Front.
Verbrande Molen. No windmill here but there is a small street Verbrandemolenstraat and a dairy farm called Verbrandt Molen.
Brooding Soldier Memorial (De Canadien), Saint Julien. On Vancouver Corner, this was inaugurated in 1923 by the brother f the British King and Prince Leopold. The 10m high white granite column is topped by a carving of the helmeted torso of a soldier. His folded hands are resting on the butt of his unturned rifle, the traditional military salute to the fallen His bowed head is looking in the direction from which a cloud of chlorine gas approached this section of the line on April 22, 1915. This was the first large-scale chemical attack in the history of warfare.
The front of the memorial bears the single word CANADA. The sides give a short summary of the Canadian contribution to the battle. “This column marks the battlefield where 18,000 Canadians on the British left withstood the first German gas attacks, 2000 fell and lie buried nearby.
There is a lovely plaque in 4 languages installed by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and Parks Canada. In the first 4 days of battle, the 1st Canadian Division sustained about 6,000 casualties. I signed the Visitors Book. Very moving.
Hooge Crater Museum, Ypres
De Panne Beach. Another big expansive beach.
Oostduinkerke Beach. Another big expansive beach.
Monument for King Albert I (West Front Newport), Nieuwpoort. An 8m-high granite memorial commemorates the 566 British soldiers with no known grave who died in Oct 1915 defending Antwerp. The Germans overtook the city and control was not regained until June 1917. Their names and regiment are on a brass plaque encircling the monument.
Above the memorial, 12 double columns support a capital surrounding a statue of King Albert on a horse. In Oct 1914, the entire plain around was deliberately flooded from the River Ljzer successfully stopping the German advance for 4 years. German shelling destroyed the towns of Nieuwpoort and Diksbruig.
Nieuwpoort Lighthouse. A red/white LH sitting just behind the beach.
Atlantic Wall – Raversyde Museum. Coastal bunkers, tunnels, and observation posts including the Aachen Battery (WWI) and Salzwedel-neu Battery (WWII). 6 no reduction
Phare d’Ostende (Lange Nelle LH). Inland, it has a wavy blue design.
De Haan Beach. A big beach backed by dunes.
Blankenberge lighthouse (West Mole LH). A white/black LH is set on the end of a long pier.
BRUGES
Gruuthuse Hof. In the NM hospitality legends series, it principally sells nougat and marzipan but also a restaurant
Café Vlissinghe. Established in 1515, it states that it is probably the oldest pub in the world and certainly in Bruges. It is a tiny and in an out-of-the-way tiny street. The menu lists sides and snacks that appear reasonably priced.
Hotel Navarra.
Bruges Windmills (Koeleweimill, Nieuwe Papegaai, Sint-Janshuismill, Bonne Chiere)
Sint-Janshuismill. Only 100m from an identical windmill, this sits on an artificial hill. It is not operational. The base is fixed and it appears to rotate on its central axis.
Hotel Casanus, Steneke. Originally a cheeky, if a titanic piece of art, the one-room Hotel Casanus is a giant intestinal model that allows guests to spend a cozy night inside a massive colon. Resting in the Verbeke Foundation Art Park near Antwerp, the cozy anatomical model was the work of Dutch designer Joep van Lieshout. The slim, curved interior of the furnished anus features a double bed, windows, heating, and of course, working plumbing. The exterior of the room is sculpted with bulging veins and a giant puckered sphincter (non-functional) on one end and painted the visceral red of exposed organs. The colossal muscle tube almost seems out of place in the idyllic art park, near a placid pond, yet it is composed of soft, natural angles, no matter how gross.
Despite the stomach-churning imagery, visitors still flock to the site to spend the night in the big colon which is also surrounded by such wondrous sites as black swans and an unobstructed view of the night sky. Hotel Casanus is somewhere between theme bed and breakfast and gross-out stunt tourism, but whatever the draw, guests can’t help butt visit. One night in Hotel Casanus, Joep Van Lieshout’s installation costs €120 for two people. Breakfast and access to the museum are included in the price. Make your reservation at least a week in advance by email.
Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke.I have seen many sites in the NM Bizzarium series but this may be the most bizarre. Google Maps showed the location but indicated a walk through the woods that didn’t exist. A narrow 2-land road that parallels the highway has a wonderful herd of elephants made of wood bolted onto a heavy metal wireframe. There are 3 adults and 5 juveniles all portrayed with a great sense of motion, lovely eyes, trunks, tusks, and tails. This is part of the complex.
Google Maps directed me down a one-lane road but the access wasn’t obvious. I drove back to the main road and could see no signs or roads other than a large industrial site (the real access to the complex). I turned back down the small road to where it meets the canal coming in on the left, parked, and followed a small dirt road through the woods that looks like private property. Just to the left of a green quansit hut is what I presume to be the “hotel” – an unkept-looking structure with walls of old window frames set into green wood frames. The door was unlocked. The main room has 2 lovely plush chairs, a deco coffee table, mirrored ball, a large lion, a plastic green cactus, and a nice
abstract picture ala Jackson Pollack. Everything was surprisingly immaculately clean. Outside stairs lead to a locked “loft” that was empty and looked unused. There were no beds as in a hotel but there was a clean blanket on the floor.
I followed the path that continues along the canal. Next to the “hotel” was a graveyard with 60 stone gravestones each with a plastic label with a name and dates. A marker in the ground says Universal Cemetery – Victims of Fate. Along the path in order are 3 cone sculptures made of brick, a very nice open “lattice” dome constructed of 4×4 wood, a large wood pipe to crawl through, a pen of live goats, a metal structure of unknown purpose, 7 large metal mechanical “mobiles, and finally a set of tables of varying heights outside the main complex. Everything has a green plastic label with the name of the artist.
This huge complex consists of a large warehouse with a very eclectic and unusual bunch of art in the main building, some in “galleries” devoted to individual artists and in several adjoining “greenhouses” that are visible from the small road but with no visible access from this direction. There is a reception desk with the sign Verbeke Foundation 12E, an adjoining book shop, some lovely bathrooms, and a large bar/restaurant where a group of eight were eating dinner. No one noticed me and I talked to no one, not wanting to pay the entrance fee. The whole place looks professionally done. Bizarre.
When I looked through the NM list of museums, I unexpectedly found the Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke.
ANTWERP
Molen van Sint-Anneke (Openluchtzwembad De Molen, Molen van ‘t Veertje). On the Left Bank in the Belgian municipality of Antwerp is a grindable wind flour mill. The mill was to be demolished in 1937 so was moved to the beach of Sint-Anneke, but was damaged in a storm in 1990 and was dismantled. The parts were stored behind the restaurant and set on fire by a homeless person and then rebuilt completely in 2001, after which it was made millable again in 2008.
It sits on the roof of the restaurant, all surrounded by a fence with the windows of the restaurant boarded up. It is white, rectangular, and has hydraulic lines to control the vanes.
Brabo Monument. Silvius Brabo was a mythical Roman soldier who was said to have killed a giant, and by this would have created the name Brabant. Later this story was also used to explain the name Antwerp (‘Antwerpen’ in Dutch) which, according to the story, is a derivative of ‘handwerpen’ (meaning hand throwing). Brabo once killed a giant, called Druon Antigoon, who asked money from people who wanted to pass the bridge over the river Scheldt. When they didn’t want to or couldn’t pay, he cut off their hand and threw it in the river. Because of this, Brabo also removed the hand of the giant and threw it into the river. This mythical story is still shown by the statue in front of the Antwerp City Hall.
This great bronze monument sits in a large triangular square on a pile of rough rocks. A dragon, fish, turtle, seal, prostate man with a severed hand, and two mermaids surround the top, a man holding a severed hand standing on a castle on a boat.
Grote Markt. On the same square as Brabo Monument. A typical market.
Boerentoren. This 26 story, 97m tall office building was built in 1937 and was the first skyscraper in mainland Europe. With a steel frame, it is clad in white stone and features 4 art deco statues over the entrance.
Den Botaniek. Occupying a small city block in the centre of the city, it is a lovely green oasis. Large trees, flowers not in bloom, succulents, a waterfall with a pool full of carp, and a statue of 4 men descending into the ground are all features. Free
Parkbrug. Crossing the big street and connecting the Noorderplaast Campus of a university, it is covered with sides decorated with multiple geometrical cutouts.
Port Authority. The Port of Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe and the world’s largest seaport outside of East Asia. From 1962 until 2004, it was the world’s busiest port by annual cargo tonnage. In 2004 overtaken first by the port of Singapore, and since then by Shanghai and other very large Chinese seaports. In 2020, Rotterdam was the world’s tenth-largest container port in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) handled.
Covering 105 square kilometres (41 sq mi), the port of Rotterdam now stretches over a distance of 40 kilometres (25 mi). The Port of Rotterdam is located in the middle of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. Rotterdam has five port concessions (ports) within its boundaries – operated by separate companies under the overall authority of Rotterdam.
The headquarters is a 33-story, 123.1 m (404 ft) skyscraper.
Sir Norman Foster designed the 32-story building.
As the building stands at the far point of the Wilhelmina pier it is built on, there is a view of the surrounding harbours and city from the higher floors.
De Quinten Matsijs. In the NM Urban Legends, this is a large urban park with trees, grass, lakes, and many walking paths.
Wijnegem Shopping Center. Well outside the city, there is nothing special here, somewhat dated decor.
Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen: (Jewish museum of deportation and resistance). 18th-century barracks with a museum and memorial to Jews and gypsies deported and murdered during WWII. Many photos, historical documents, videos from people who lived during the war, and testimonials in a chronological narrative from the 30s onward but few artifacts about the holocaust in Belgium. Most could be shown on the internet. This was a significant 30km detour and not really worth the effort (I have seen the best Holocaust museums in the world (Washington DC, Jerusalem, Skopje).
Scherpenbergmolen, Malle. Built in 1843 and refurbished in 1967, this is a gorgeous mill – red brick, slightly tapered and functioning.
COLONIES OF BENEVOLENCE WHS
This includes four settlements and cultural landscapes with one colony in Belgium and three in The Netherlands. They were a 19th-century experiment in social reform, an effort to alleviate urban poverty by establishing agricultural colonies in remote peat and heath wastelands considered unfit for settlement. The plan was for colonists to become morally reformed ideal citizens, adding to the nation’s wealth. Established in 1818, Frederiksoord (the Netherlands) is the earliest of these colonies and home to the original headquarters of the Society of Benevolence, an association that aimed to reduce poverty at the national level. Others were the colonies of Wilhelminaoord and Veenhuizen, in the Netherlands, and Wortel in Belgium. As the colonies’ small farms yielded insufficient revenues, the Society of Benevolence sought other sources of revenue, contracting with the State to settle orphans, soon followed by beggars and vagrants, leading to the creation of “unfree” colonies, such as Veenhuizen in 1825, with large dormitory type structures and larger centralized farms for them to work under the supervision of guards. The colonies were designed as panoptic settlements along orthogonal lines. They feature residential buildings, farmhouses, churches, and other communal facilities. At their peak in the mid-19th century, over 11,000 people lived in such colonies in the Netherlands. In Belgium, their number peaked at 6,000 in 1910.
After 1918, the colonies lost their relevance and evolved into ‘normal’ villages and areas with institutions for custodial care. The 175 years of their history reveal the long evolution in European thought concerning socially marginalized people and their scarcely recognized rights as full members of society, enshrined now in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
I made a large detour to go to Wortel, but there was no mention, nor had anyone ever heard of a World Heritage Site. It has simply become another small village with no evidence of a Colony of Benevolence.
I continued on to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.