22 May ’04, Saturday. There is nothing like a good walk (but sore feet !!). We left for the underwater tunnel at 10:47 this morning and we were in the mart (one of the many city market areas or plaza’s) by 11:18 or about 30 minutes. Now I must tell you, as I write this my feet are starting to finally feel like they belong attached to the bottom of my legs. Our plan this morning was to explore a couple of museums and churches. “Well made plans are made to be changed”, and that we did by taking a self-guided “walking tour”. Lucky for me we took the shortest of the two tours available. In addition to our walk through the streets of Antwerp, we did see 2 really beautiful churches. In the Cathedral of Antwerp, we were able to be a part of an English spoken “guided tour”. Louise and I had already taken our own tour through the cathedral before we heard the announcement that a tour was available. It was really amazing just how much more you get when a professional is there to guide you. I guess we haven’t taken too many guided tours because we are TOO CHEAP!! One of the big draws that we were interested in was the works of Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens is Antwerp and Antwerp is Rubens. P.P. Rubens started to be really recognized when he was taken as a court painter for Archduke Albrecht and Archduchess Isabella in 1609. From that point on the English, French, and Spanish monarchs sought his services. We have been very fortunate to see some of his best work here in Antwerp and there is more to see in the next day or two. It really is quite stunning. We learned that where the cathedral now stands and is part of the foundation, was a small chapel of the Virgin that was started in the tenth century. This cathedral was first established in 1124 and has gone through enlargements from that time to 1520. This was then and is today, the largest Gothic church in the Low Countries (Benelux countries). Today, because we are receiving such a great deal (price) on our campground pitch, we splurged on a wonderful lunch in the main Grote Markt. I wont go into a lot of detail of what we had but, I just wanted to mention that I lost my visor….I really liked that visor too. Well anyway, after lunch and having a chance to let our feet rest, we walked to St Carolus Borromeus Church. This church also has 2 Rubens and a number of other fine art on display. They also have 9 suspended “Punching Bags” printed with illustrations of 17th century ivory preciosa. This is to give form to the religious dimension of present day life and hang as a sort of life preserver for dealing with emotions that could arise in life. Tomorrow….Different Shoes !!!!
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