Photos I took have been uploaded.
The political situation in Bangkok is still brewing. And the difference tears us apart to the very fabric of our society. I just FB chatted with a friend and she fought with her mom about being a red shirt, among other things.
Antwerp seems to wake up not so early. My B&B serves breakfast at 9-10.30 AM which is much later than other places. I walked around downtown around 10 AM, and things were still quiet. My first stop is at Rubenshuis (Rubens' house) where he lived until his death (~1650). The house is on the main shopping area: Meir St. I think the way the house was laid out was probably typical for city mansions in those times: Main gate that connects with the house and the inside courtyard. Rubens bought the house and he added a studio. The house was Gothic but he annexed an Italian palazzo to it. Unlike van Gogh, Rubens was successful materially and socially in his times. He was also an aristocrat and a diplomat. He tried to mend the Catholics and the Protestants in the Netherlands but later grew disillusioned and abandoned the idea.
I don't like 1600-1700 houses that much. It's suffocating and too heavy for me. But I can understand that it was designed that way to seal residents from the cold weather. The interior is dark, heavy and very enclosed. Each room is quite small so as to maximize warmth from a fireplace.
Then it's time for lunch. Restaurants here open two times a day: lunch at 12-14.30 and dinner at 18.00-I don't know when. I saw one place that I'd like to try, Lombardia, and I wandered around until I ran into it. The place served organic food (meat and vegetarian). Belgium has two official languages: Flemish and French. Since I don't know either of them, I generally pick soup and salad. Goat cheese seem to be popular here; I had it two days in a row. The signature drink of Lombardia is hot ginger drink so I had that as well. Its decor is really quirky. It's on the borderline of vulgar and coolness. If you don't know what you are doing, you can create a room full of trash with this kind of design. For example, they made a lamp shade out of Thai newspaper. They used photo collages for wall paper.
Yound Belgians are kind of cute, by the way. The waiters and waitresses of Lombardia are attractive. Aging interests me. I asked myself why I like younger-looking guys and not old ones if I say that I like them for who they are, not how they look. I barely found myself being attracted to aging, bald and potbellied men. I suppose the reason is the same as why I prefer fresh flowers than withered ones. Genetically programmed to favor reproduction.
My next visit was to the Plentin-Moretus Museum which is the former house and workshop of these two printing families. It dated back to 1600. I like being in a really old house. What must the house have seen over all these times? I love visiting houses than formal museums as houses have more sense of time and changes. Some decor is Gothic but some are newer: 1800. The coolest part of the house is the printing workshop with storage rooms for types (letter stamps for printing) and printing press rooms. I also like numerous libraries in the house. Plentin was the most successful printer in 1600 and he made a fortune. I didn't remember the history much.
I also like the interactive VDO stands that explain details about printing, type making and book binding. In the old days, printing was very labor intensive (I suppose everything was without automation in those days): ink was applied to the letter plates, paper was placed, the whole thing was pressed, and then the printed paper removed. Despite the effort in preparing the plates and printing, it is much faster than hand writing them and enabling mass production of books.
Amazingly, I haven't run into any Thais at Antwerp. I suppose it's not a popular destination like Paris or London.
I have some time left so I walked to the Museum of Fine Arts which was closed for installing the new exhibition. I wasn't that disappointed as I didn't plan to go there anyway so I sat at the cafe reading.
I'm leaving for Brussels today. Hopefully, I recovered the knitting bag that I lost. I almost finished the hat that I was going to give to Luangpee Tum. If I don't get it back, I have to start a new one then. But I felt that I would.
The political situation in Bangkok is still brewing. And the difference tears us apart to the very fabric of our society. I just FB chatted with a friend and she fought with her mom about being a red shirt, among other things.
I don't like 1600-1700 houses that much. It's suffocating and too heavy for me. But I can understand that it was designed that way to seal residents from the cold weather. The interior is dark, heavy and very enclosed. Each room is quite small so as to maximize warmth from a fireplace.
Yound Belgians are kind of cute, by the way. The waiters and waitresses of Lombardia are attractive. Aging interests me. I asked myself why I like younger-looking guys and not old ones if I say that I like them for who they are, not how they look. I barely found myself being attracted to aging, bald and potbellied men. I suppose the reason is the same as why I prefer fresh flowers than withered ones. Genetically programmed to favor reproduction.
My next visit was to the Plentin-Moretus Museum which is the former house and workshop of these two printing families. It dated back to 1600. I like being in a really old house. What must the house have seen over all these times? I love visiting houses than formal museums as houses have more sense of time and changes. Some decor is Gothic but some are newer: 1800. The coolest part of the house is the printing workshop with storage rooms for types (letter stamps for printing) and printing press rooms. I also like numerous libraries in the house. Plentin was the most successful printer in 1600 and he made a fortune. I didn't remember the history much.
Amazingly, I haven't run into any Thais at Antwerp. I suppose it's not a popular destination like Paris or London.
I have some time left so I walked to the Museum of Fine Arts which was closed for installing the new exhibition. I wasn't that disappointed as I didn't plan to go there anyway so I sat at the cafe reading.
I'm leaving for Brussels today. Hopefully, I recovered the knitting bag that I lost. I almost finished the hat that I was going to give to Luangpee Tum. If I don't get it back, I have to start a new one then. But I felt that I would.
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