...
Belgische Juwelen was the name of a bus trip to Flanders.
Unfortunately, the ratio was two days on the bus and two days of sightseeing.
Gaius Julius Caesar
taught us:
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam
Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi
omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt ... and Red Baron adds: Belgium too consists of three parts - Flanders,
Wallonia, and the Brussels Region.
Caesar continues in lingua Anglica: Of all these tribes, the Belgae are
the strongest, because they are very far removed from the culture and
civilization of the Roman province; merchants rarely visit them and do not
bring goods that might soften their spirits; and they are neighbors of the
Germans, who live across the Rhine, with whom they are constantly at war.
This
might have been true 50 before Christ, but in the Middle Ages Flanders,
together with Northern Italy, was one of the richest regions in Europe. The
cloth trade, in particular, made cities like Antwerpen and
Gent wealthy.
|
| ©landgeist.com |
To soften their spirits, the Belgians brew beer in 395 breweries and drink 87
liters per year per capita, but in Europe their consumption is clearly beaten
by the Czechs with 135 liters.
|
| ©Der Spiegl |
The other famous Belgian "softening" product is no longer cloth but chocolate.
In Brussels, every second shop sells chocolate to tourists, but when it comes
to consumption, the Swiss, with 10.5 kg per year, are the frontrunners and the
Belgians are way behind.
And finally, the only time we're "at war" these days is with the
Belgian voetbalelftal- the Red Devils wearing red jerseys - in
soccer.
|
| What splendor! |
We arrived in Antwerp after a ten-hour bus ride, had time to visit the famous
central station just opposite our hotel, and later had dinner at one of the
downtown restaurants called
brasseries.
|
|
Why is the flag at the top La tricolore?
|
The following morning, we visited Brussels, and our first stop - where else -
was the
Atomium, combining the words atom and aluminum, the metal with
which the spheres were initially covered. Since its inauguration at the World's
Fair EXPO 58, the spheres of the Brussels landmark have become unsightly from
corrosion and have been coated with stainless steel.
|
|
A close-up taken through the window of our passing bus
|
The nine spheres represent one elementary cell of an iron crystal, enlarged
165 billion times. Eight iron atoms are at the corners of a cube, and one is
in the center.
Staying on the grounds of the Brussels World's Fairs, we drove toward the Palais
5 of EXPO 1935. Built in the Art Deco style, it has a stepped, almost
pyramid-like silhouette and an austere, monumental facade. Verdigris-colored
bronze statues top the vertical pillars.
|
|
In the background, the Palais de Justice dome rises.
|
As we entered Brussels's Manhattan district, the bus had to stop at a traffic
light. We got a glimpse of a triangular steel form from which an arc has been
removed and displaced. The black satin-painted object stands in the center of
a shallow reflecting basin. The artist, Maria Wierusz-Kowalski, created the
sculpture in 1997 and called it
Esprit ouvert - Perspectives et Réflexions.
|
|
To the right, you enter the "bilingual" Galerie des Princes / Prinsen Galerij.
|
Eventually, we stepped off the bus and walked through the
Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. This shopping mall was modeled after
Milan's famous shopping gallery, the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.
We passed the chocolaterie, Neuhaus.
Jean Neuhaus, a Swiss immigrant, founded his company in 1857 in Brussels and opened the
first chocolate store in the
Galeries Royales. In 1912, his grandson,
Jean Neuhaus II, invented the chocolate praline, a decadent chocolate cream
ganache center inside a chocolate shell.
On our way to the other landmark every visitor must see, we
noted
La Friterie. Looking inside made our mouths water.
Eventually, we reached another Brussels landmark: the
Manneken Pis. His origin is rooted in a legend. In the 14th
century, foreign troops besieged Brussels. When the city stubbornly
held ground, the attackers secretly placed explosive charges at the
city walls. A little boy named
Julianske, observing the
preparations, urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.
The
earliest mention of
Manneken Pis in a document dates to the
mid-15th century. At that time, the pissing boy wasn't a tourist
attraction, as
Jacobus Harrewijn's 1697 gravure shows.
|
|
The water jet must have been stronger back then
(©Jijuc/Wikipedia)
|
The
Fontaine de Manneken-Pis was part of Brussels' water supply!
In 1695, during the Nine Years' War,
Louis XIV's troops bombarded
Brussels, heavily damaging the city's water supply. For some time the
Manneken could not deliver his water. When the pipes were
repaired, the little pisser was triumphantly returned to its pedestal.
Above his head, the grateful citizens placed the text of Psalm 27:5-6:
In petra exaltavit me, et nunc exaltavi caput meum super inimicos
meos
(He hath set me high upon a rock (pedestal). And now he hath lifted up
my head above my enemies.)
On our way back, we passed
La Frieterie again, and this time we
stopped and stepped in. Without exaggeration, I had the most expensive, but best, French fries of my life. How
do the Belgians make them ...
|
|
Seen in Gent
|
I asked ChatGPT, and here is the answer:
1. The potato
They traditionally use floury, high-starch potatoes, such as Bintje. The
high starch and relatively low moisture are important for the fluffy
interior.
2. Cut thick
Belgian frites are generally cut considerably thicker than fast-food
fries - roughly 10- 13 mm. This gives enough potato inside to remain
soft and creamy.
3. First frying - relatively cool
The raw fries are fried at around 140-160°C for several minutes. They
cook through without becoming brown. The inside becomes soft and fluffy
while the outside develops the beginnings of a crust.
4. Resting
This is an important part. The fries are taken out and allowed to drain
and cool for a while.
5. Second frying - very hot
Just before serving, they go back into the fat at about 175-190°C. The
remaining surface moisture rapidly turns into steam, producing a dry,
crisp exterior.
Little of the traditional Belgian broderie remains. I didn't ask for the
price.
Then our guide led us to Brussels'
Grand-Place, devastated by the
French bombardment in 1695 but, like the
Manneken Pis, it rose from its
ashes. The place is surrounded by the
Hôtel de Ville, guildhouses,
and
La Maison du Roi. Many buildings around the
Grote Markt were rebuilt and date to the late 17th century.
The Stadhuis, from the 15th century and built in Brabant
Gothic, has a 96-meter-high tower crowned by a statue of the Archangel
Michael. It largely survived the 1695 bombardment. But our guide didn't rant at
the French but at the Spaniards.
At the end of the Middle Ages, Flanders, along with Brussels, was part of the
Spanish Netherlands. La
Maison du Roi, the
Broodhuis, bears witness to this. Originally, bakers sold their bread
there. The Dukes of Brabant kept the original name when they converted the house
into an administrative building. Later, the building became the Habsburg
governor's residence.
Karl Marx, expelled from Paris, arrived in the Belgian capital in February
1845, and Friedrich Engels joined him that spring. La
Maison du Cygne was a meeting place for the Democratic Association of
Brussels where the pair often gathered. Marx was active in the group and
gave lectures.
In the aftermath of the February 1848 revolution in France, Belgian
authorities moved against foreign radicals. Marx was arrested, expelled in
March, and returned to Paris.
|
|
Horses pollute; electric vehicles don't.
|
Another historic building on the
Grand-Place is
La Maison du Pigeon. After
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's coup d'état in 1851, in which he established an anti-parliamentary
constitution,
Victor Hugo, a staunch Republican, openly declared Napoléon III
a traitor to France. Hugo fled to Brussels in December and stayed in the house
decorated with a pigeon until the Belgian authorities pushed him out in 1852.
He moved on to the Channel Islands, first to Jersey, from which he was expelled, then to Guernsey, where he stayed until 1870.
Stay tuned for more Flanders.
**
