Falling masonry and fine architecture

As my sister does not read my blog .......
this is included to show the Beguinage at its most beguiling.

 Fell in love with the boy but .....

 ...also loved the face of his companion
even though her head is too big for her body!

Having a sister to stay is a Full Time Job but also an opportunity for great fun. We did lots; going out for coffee and patisseries to two separate friends, one of whom had only recently moved so giving us the chance to see a super apartment in Academiestraat nearby; out for lovely meals; to shops; to the Saturday market for plants and flowers; to hear Luc Vanlaere and his harps again [gentle, interesting, innovative music in Oud Sint Jan]; to my English group to hear an English friend speak on the subject of his dissertation currently under-way; to whit, the deliberate Ijzer flooding in the Autumn of 1914 which temporarily halted the German advance. We sampled the uplifting April show of daffodils at the Beguinage; took a friend to breakfast at Blackbird and spent a most productive time at Bomberna at Maldegem for extra pots and compost ready for the imminent arrival of Spring. En route home from the latter, to a fab architectural salvage place where, temporarily ignoring post-Brexit poverty, I bought a pair of charming statues of a boy and girl for the terrace. AND  later in the week, a Louis Reckelbus, bought but unwanted by a friend at an auction. Fortunate indeed that I shall spend no euros during April when I visit my daughter and her family in California. A period of restraint is called for, both impulse and fiscal restraint!!

En route home from the station after H’s departure on Wednesday morning I wandered into the Markt, busy with the weekly mixed market but with a difference. In front of the Belfort were two fire engines and many helmeted firemen plus two men in a raised basket on the ladder extending from one of the engines. Spectators galore gazed upwards as did I but nothing seemed changed or happening. I eventually discovered that one huge crenellation had fallen intact from high up, narrowly missing the friet van that is usually there. It must have weighed an extraordinary amount but the gods were kind and no one was hurt. I immediately assumed the cub reporter role [is this a redundant expression now?]and busily photographed events/objects for this blog such is the importance I place on this timeless record!!

 Voila!

To the funeral of a dear friend and member of my English group, near Antwerp on Friday. My first visit but not my last; we saw only a relative glimpse of the splendid centre of Antwerp but we left from the glorious and stately central station where we had time to sit and toast our late friend’s memory. I was told that Delacenserie was the architect of Antwerp Centraal and it is a magnificent structure for a memorial to a fine architect. In tribute to the saying that one can take the girl out of teaching but not the teaching out of the girl, I have gone on to look up a little about the background of the Centraal. Really interesting stuff! It was indeed Louis Delacenserie who was the architect between 1895 and 1905 and on the 1905 opening, it was regarded as the finest example of railway architecture anywhere. In 2014 it was confirmed as the most beautiful station in the world by the British/U.S. magazine, Mashable. In the preceding hundred years it had had a chequered history; the Centraal suffered huge damage to the train hall from V2 rockets during WW2 though it was subsequently considered to be safe, structurally. However it was closed as unsafe on January 31st 1986 for restoration between March and September of that year when it safely re-opened. In 1998 reconstruction began, to enable the through passage of high speed trains, and was completed in 2007. In 2011 Antwerpen Centraal was awarded the Grand Prix in the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage. Until now I had thought of St Pancras, in London, as the most beautiful railway station I had seen but now, it is easily surpassed by the majesty of Antwerp!

Antwerpen Centraal in all its glory.