Blue seas and blue skies, elicit inner feelings of calm and delight. Sweeping through us like a warm summer holiday breeze. However, if you’re lost and waterless in the Sahara, or floating aimlessly on a raft in the middle of a flat Pacific, then your perspective may be somewhat different. If you were a 19th century slave cotton picker, sweltering day after day, beneath endless blue skies, then feeling the ‘blues’ would come naturally.
The first, of a hat-trick of two-nighters, finds us pitched up at City Camping Antwerp. A Werkmmaat managed site that provides job training opportunities for those needing help to secure permanent positions.
No sad feelings surround us on this edge to edge blue morning; for a mere 1€ return, a five minute waterbus ride crosses the river Scheldt and drops us right outside the oldest building in Antwerp. Het Steen Fortress. Used today as the Tourist Information Centre.
Walking tours are on offer at week-ends only. We scratch that off our list. Rubens’ House is closed until 2027 for refurbishment. We scratch that off our list too. We discover the underground tunnels tour is fully booked for the next four days. Oops. So we head straight towards the huge cathedral that dominates the city skyline.
Continental calmness is in abundance. The locals float about as if having no cares in the world. It’s what we love about these laid back European towns and villages. A sense of order and peace; perhaps brought about by the effects of WWI & WWII.
Its mammoth inner quarters house a mass of art. A museum in itself. Amongst the many Rubens’ paintings, equally gifted artists of the then and now, have their marvels on display.
A series of twenty-four life-size sculptures dominate one wall. The twelve apostles having been interspersed (not a euphemism) with twelve women.
Ninety minutes later our rumbling tums tumble out into the bright sunshine in search of lunch, followed by an afternoons visit to the red and modern Mas Museum, recommended by a couple of German ladies at this morning’s breakfast wash-up. It’s fully clad with hand-hewn, red Indian sandstone from Agra, so we can’t miss it.
With over 600,000 pieces, two hours of intense browsing becomes a mind numbing experience. However, we leave with a greater understanding of Antwerp’s place in the past and present world.
A pre-Columbian display (before Columbus) from the Americas rounds off our visit.
