THE ART AND MILITARY TOUR IN BELGIUM
Our journey began at Schiphol Airport where we picked up our
rental car for this trip. We usually
take a train or bus for our travels, but we had 9 different cities to visit and
planning for that was impossible and the timetable unmanageable.
Within a few hours we arrived in Antwerp. With a GPS travel is so easy. It took us right to the parking garage which
was next to the MAS museum, our destination.
Ray has many, many pictures to accompany this narrative, so I will not
be too wordy. Many have captions which I
do not want to repeat. This is a relatively new museum as you will see. It is on the water and quite tall (10
stories), with an open air top terrace with great views of the city. After finding the one picture we wanted to
see we left the museum to search for the Cathedral of our Lady. It houses the next picture on our Belgian
list. An easy walk and we were there. Antwerp had many closed businesses and was a
bit shabby. Not much activity going on
in the commercial area.
Next stop, Ghent. We
planned to stay the night in Ghent, so we headed for the hotel.. Have you ever
had one of those situations where you can clearly see your destination, but
just can’t get there? That was
Ghent. We drove around at least 3 times
before we entered the parking area.
Checked in and off we go by bus and tram to the city center. It was nearing evening and we knew the
museums and churches would be closed, but we wanted to have dinner in town and
see some of the sites. Ghent was so much
more pleasant then Antwerp.. Gorgeous city center area with some nice
restaurants and chocolate shops. Can’t
believe we had dinner in an Irish Pub, but we did. Roast chicken and beef stew cooked in stout. Quite yummy.
Next morning off to St. Bavo Cathedral to view the altar
piece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. The
altar piece was painted by Van Eyck. It
is in a separate room in the church. We
were given an audio guide explaining all the panels. We usually don’t take audio guides, but we
did this time and it was very well done.
A little long for me, but nicely done.
There were 4 of us in the room.
Chairs were provided. I sat. Ray stood.
Had breakfast at a pastry shop that had
a wonderful variety to choose from.
This shop was sleek, modern and so clean. They were making sandwiches for lunch as we
sat and had our coffee and pastry. I
wanted to get a few, but knew we were going to Bruges later in the day and I
knew they just might have food in Bruges
Tram back to the bus station and then a short walk to the
Museum of Fine Arts. This museum was in
a park, so the setting was lovely. The
museum itself was beautiful. We quite
easily found the pictures we wanted to see.
Spent a bit of time here. Some
very nice art work here.
Bus back to the hotel and reset the GPS for Bruges. Arrived in about 30 minutes. We had been to Bruges a while back. Not sure, but at least 5 or 6 years ago. It is the jewel of Belgium, and tourist central. The town square is lively and surrounded by restaurants and cafes. If I were a shopper, this would be a place I could spent a lot f time and money. Besides viewing another painting on our list we also returned to The Church of our Lady to see the Michelangelo sculpture of Madonna and Child.
We thought we could make it to Brussels in time to visit one
more museum, but had a little problem with parking. It was already a pretty long day, so we
decided to move on to our second night’s hotel in Leuven and double back to Brussels
in the morning.
Leuven is a lovely little town about 30 minutes east of
Brussels. I guess it isn’t that little,
but it’s not as big as Brussels. We
stayed at a brand new Radisson Hotel. We
used points for all of our hotels this trip.
Ray had accumulated quite a few when working for USG. This place was very nice. Better than most places we have stayed in
Europe. Not a typical small room with
smaller bath and 2 person lift. It was a
proper hotel! Checked in and took off
for food. As usual I was starving.
Very nice walk from the hotel to the city square. More lovely shops too. The weather was nice, so we ate outside. Mussels and frites to die for, and Stella
Artois. Leuven is the home of
Stella. For dessert we had a sundae with
vanilla and mocha ice cream, caramel sauce and some kind of crunchy sweet
sprinkles.
Leuven is a large university town, and most of the students
ride bikes and barrel through the town square.
One must watch carefully. As in
Amsterdam, the bikers are king of the road.
We only had one piece of art to see in Leuven and it was an
altar piece. The museum section of the
church didn’t open until 10AM, but we thought we would be tricky and pretend to
go to the 9AM mass and sneak a peek.
Didn’t work…Altar piece was in another part of the church behind locked
doors. So we took off for coffee
and more pastries. Folks in France, Belgium and the Netherlands
don’t do much for breakfast…coffee and pastry is about it. I could use an egg and hash browns about now.
Some people are real pains.
We returned to the church about 10 minutes before 10 and noticed the
ticket guy sitting in his little booth reading the paper. We asked if we could come in, and he said
no. We were the only people there. We got in at 10 and spotted the altar piece,
but more interesting was the artist restoring some paintings. He chatted with us for awhile. The painting he was restoring had been
painted over with red paint.
Said our goodbyes to Leuven and continued on to complete a
totally crazy day in the life of Ray and Sue Wynn. First stop was Brussels and the Royal
Museum. Two very interesting pictures on
the list are housed here. This museum is
also very beautiful. Huge rooms with
lots of light. We briefly thought about
going to see the Mannekin Pis. We have
seen him before, and he really isn’t all that impressive, but I wanted to see
what kind of outfit he might have on. He
has a wardrobe that includes all sorts of odd clothing, like an Elvis
jumpsuit. Who knows he could have had a
Cub, Bear, or Blackhawk uniform on.
We’ll never know. I might see if
they have a webcam on him and take a peek once in a while.
Left Brussels and I think we drove southwest out of Brussels to the
town of Tournai. The museum in this town
had been closed and it was just opened on the day we arrived. It was sort of backtracking from Brussels,
but a painting is a painting and we are obsessed. We were greeted by two older gentlemen, and
one of them escorted us to the painting we wanted to see. We continued to walk through this small
place.. We were the only ones there
until a grade school group walked in.
This museum needs a little work, but the exterior has great
architecture.
So, to show how crazy we are we decided to travel to a small
town in France to see our last painting on our list for this trip. We were 100% so far, and figured, what the
heck. Douai here we come.
The painting here is an Equestrian Portrait of Louis XIV and
is huge…about 11ft x 6ft. This same
artist did another painting of Louis and we had just seen it in Tournai about
an hour earlier. It was also very large.
This museum was surprisingly large for the size of the
town. It had a very large sculpture
room. Ray has a picture. It amazes us that almost every museum we go
to we see works by very famous artists.
These guys and gals must have worked nonstop. It just blows us away.
So ends the art tour.
Our last night in Belgium was in Liege.
Another very classy hotel…way out of our league. It was rainy, but we ventured out in search
of sustenance. We found a place that
didn’t show much promise, but boy did it surprise us. I needed more mussels and this place surely
delivered. There was one waiter and this
guy was fantastic. He had people inside
and outside (yes, even in the rain).
Last night and I needed a waffle, just because I was in Belgium. Oh, with ice cream, whipped cream and hot
chocolate sauce too.
Our last day had a military theme. Ray will be the narrator.
Waterloo was “on the way” to our next hotel in Liege, so of
course we had to go. It was pretty easy
to find, but there was one little problem.
When we got off the motorway we could see the Lion Mound about a quarter
mile away, but our side of the road to the monument was blocked off because of construction. Driving on the wrong side of the road wasn’t going
to stop me! We had to pull off to the
side once about half way there, and right at the end a nice guy had to back up
a bit to let me through. But we made
it. The Lion Mound was erected in 1820
to commemorate the spot where William II of the Netherlands (the Prince of
Orange) was knocked off of his horse by a musket ball during the battle in
1815. The Lion is part of the coat of
arms of the monarch of the Netherlands.
The monument was closed when we got there, so I only got a few pictures
from outside the gate. The statue of
Napoleon is in the parking lot across the street from the mound. After taking the photos it was off to Liege.
Sue’s uncle, Michael Grygiel, is buried in the Henri
Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.
Visiting her uncle’s grave was the reason we went to Belgium. It was raining lightly Friday morning when we
set out for the cemetery. It was about a
30 minute drive. The cemetery is on high
ground out in the country in a beautiful setting. Sue went into the Visitor’s Center while I
was taking photos. I joined her after
few minutes. Bobby the Superintendent,
Lou the Assistant Superintendent and Caroline the Cemetery Assistant could not
have been nicer. We must have talked for
15-20 minutes about the history of this cemetery, some of the services the
American Battle Monuments Commission provides and the WWII battles in this area. Bobby had Lou look up the official Combat
Narrative for the 9th Infantry Division. This document told us that Mike’s 60th
Infantry engaged in close-quarter fighting in the Hurtgen Forest, and finally
secured Road Junction 471 on October 14th, 1944. They provided an Action Report document for
October 11th, 1944 the day Mike was killed. This document told us that Mike’s 60th
Infantry held a road junction (#471 mentioned above) in the Hurtgen Forest
against a counterattack. They tried
unsuccessfully to take another junction between #471 and a forester’s lodge of
Jaegerhaus. They could not actually tell
us the location where Mike was killed. Lou
printed a map giving us directions from the cemetery to where the headquarters
of the 66th Infantry had been located on October 11th. I found on a web page that from October 6-16
the 9th Division lost 4500 men killed, wounded or missing. I had read some time ago that the Battle of
Hurtgen Forest had been a tragic mistake.
Bobby confirmed that the area should have been bypassed.
Caroline then took us to Mike’s grave, and by this time the
rain had stopped. The lettering on the
white grave markets doesn’t photograph very well. Caroline brought sand that the cemetery gets
from Omaha Beach that she used to fill in the engraved lettering on Mike’s
grave to make them easier to photograph.
She also provided American and Belgium flags that we get to keep. After the photos we went back to the
Visitor’s Center and they gave us a package they provide to the next of
kin. Caroline explained how we could
request more information about when Mike joined the Army and the places he served
before he was killed. We can even
request the record of what personal effects were recovered when he was
killed. They also invited us to return
for the Memorial Day Memorial Service.
If we let them know we will come they will reserve seats for us in the
section for the families of the heroes buried at the cemetery. I think we will return.
We then set out to visit where Mike’s unit was located on
the day he was killed. It was about an
hour away in Germany. We saw a few
sections tank traps that were part of the Siegfried Line on our way to the
forest. The forest is incredible. The fir trees are huge and densely
spaced. I took some photos of the
location where Mike’s unit was located on October 11th, 1944. It is located just outside the town of
Hurtgen.
We then drove to the Malmedy Massacre site back in
Belgium. There is a memorial at the site
where the Nazis massacred 84 American prisoners of war during the Battle of the
Bulge. It was now time for us to return
home to Amsterdam.
| Malmedy 10-26 |
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