Patti here: While we were leaving our beautiful hotel Antwerp bound for Brussels we passed through a neighbourhood populated with many Hasidic and Ultra Orthodox Jews, young families taking their children to school and then jumping on their bikes to carry on to the diamond shops downtown. The Jewish community was decimated after WWII, but today, at a population of 15K-20K is one of Europe’s most vibrant and visible communities. This is a fascinating article about Antwerp’s Jewish community and changes to the diamond markets, if you’re interested – as I was – in learning more.
The 51 km ride was fairly uneventful, although we are noticing that the countryside is getting hillier. One of the conveniences of riding through forests or farmland is that you can just pull off anywhere discreet and, er, relieve yourself. (We call these stops “Green Doors”.) However, if you’re in a more urban area, you have to be resourceful: there’s rarely a public toilet to be found. On this day, I paid 6 Euros (approximately $10CDN) for a small bag of Belgian cookies at a bakery in Duffel (yes, the source of Duffle coats) for the privilege of using their loo.
Our approach to Brussels was beside a train line and then a canal, for miles and miles. Our hotel was a Holiday Inn Express which John chose specifically for their secure parking garage, a prudent idea in a large city if you don’t want your bikes stolen.
We cleaned up, and considered how to get to the Victor Horta House, a recommendation by Will. Public transportation was an option but we decided to see what travelling by bike in Brussels was like. Piece of cake! Drivers are respectful, you’re allowed to be in a lane with cars, and traffic flows easily. The city, however, was much hillier than I had thought it would be! In fact, it boasts that it, like Rome, has seven hills. It also has a number of homes in the style of “Belgian Art Nouveau”. (BTW Art Nouveau is 1893 – 1914, Art Deco is 1910 – 1940.)
Our visit was to be at 3:30 so since we were early, upstairs on the second floor we toured a fascinating exhibit of exquisite (although possibly not very comfortable) chairs by designers like Charles Rennie MacIntosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Corbusier. The house itself was truly exquisite and restoring it has been a labour of love. Thanks for the reco., Will!
On our ride back to the hotel we rode through Brussels’ famed Grote Markt. It was, of course, filled with people at 5 o’clock or so, the light was beautiful but there were just too many people to feel comfortable there on our bikes, so we headed back to the hotel, 22-year-old “Igor”, the guy on Reception at the Holiday Inn told us that the three times he has taken his mum to “Chez Jacques” they have been very happy with the quality of the food and the family atmosphere of the place. If it was good enough for Igor’s mum, it was definitely going to fill the bill! We weren’t disappointed.
The sun was setting while we walked back to the Holiday Inn. The next day we had a full morning tour booked with one of our favourite local guide companies, “Tours by Locals”, for 9 o’clock. Check out the itinerary. We met that, and more!
What great weather.
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