Skywatch

 A skywatch in Antwerp Belgium with the houses at the Big Market. Linking to "Skywatch Friday"

Fashion

In  Antwerp I visited in the Fashion Museum (MOMU) an exhibition about Madame Gres (1903-1993), a Parisian fashion designer.. She would have liked to become a sculptor but ended in fashion. She had a special way of making a dress, she just draped and folded the fabric around the model without the use of sciccors or needles. Therefor she was known as the pioneer of seamless clothes.

 

It was fascinating to watch so close the ingenious way the dresses were made. When I was younger I used to make my own clothes and I am always interested to watch the way fashion is made.

 

Here a picture of her making a dress on a model. I also watched a short movie in which you could see her designing a dress.. Look at the meters of fabric on the floor she uses.

Antwerp

A view of Antwerp in Belgium seen from the river Scheldt. We visited the city in December for the Christmasmarket but also made a tour around to watch the beautiful buildings.

The Church of our Lady is a Roman Catholic cathedral which was built from 1352 until 1521 but has never completed.

 

The building in front was decorated with several sculptures.

 

 

 

Beside the entrance of the cathedral is a sculpture of a group of stone cutters.

Antwerp Christmas market

Another few pictures of the Christmas market in Antwerp. There was singing near the Christmas tree.

 

Life music.

 

A nativity scene behind glass.

 

A carriage with real Belgium horses and a bag to catch the shit behind.

 

And the merry-go-round for young and old.

 

The Chocolate Line

When we were in Antwerp I had one wish, to visit the Chocolate palace of Dominique Persoone at the famous shopping street the Meir. This man is a chocolatier and a real artist. He makes the most impossible things of chocolate and it feels like you are visiting Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

 

A dress made of chocolate made for Miss Belgium.

 

A sweet frog. In the background some nice whishes of visitors are written on the wall.

 

This one is called "What's on Dominque's mind?" In the background you can see how the fabrics are made.

What do you think of Christmas balls of chocolate?

 

Or Santa and his deers.

Have a look at their website to see the beautiful palace where emperor Napoleon once lived.

 

 

Monday Mural

At a windy corner in Antwerp I saw this funny mural to make a concrete pillar look better.

See for more Monday Murals here

Christmas lights in Antwerp

Saturday I went with SC and our daughter to Antwerp in Belgium to watch the Christmas markets. I like the city with its old houses and narrow streets very much but had never been here during the festive season before.

 

There were big bowls with fires to sit around and enjoy your "hot wine".

 

When it was getting dark the lights went on at the giant wheel.

 

The trees looked magical. 

 

At the Christmas market you could buy many beautiful items.

 

I wasn't aware of the tragedy that had taken place in Connecticut last Friday, we left Saturday very early in the morning and hadn't seen any news. I feel for the American people who have to cope with another deadly shooting incident at a school, it is incredible.

 

 

Fun in Antwerp

At the Groenmarket was a kind of action organized for psychiatric patients, I don't  know exactly all about it, but people were having fun with music and each other.

The Plantin-Moretus Museum Antwerp

This is one of the most beautiful old museums I have ever seen. It is the residence and printing establishment Plantin Press of the famous printers Christoffel Plantijn and Jan Moretus. The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christoffel Plantijn. After his death is was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus. In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. Since 2005 it was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The house is complete with furniture and 30.000 books. This is the shop where the people could buy books. Look at the beautiful windows.

You could walk through the house and go up to two stores and an attic by little wooden stairs, and walk on cracking wooden floors. The family was very wealthy which you could see at the richly decorated interior with paintings and furniture. Watch the leather wallpaper, I had never seen this before.

This is the courtyard and you have an impression how big the house is. I saw authentic printing presses, the two oldest surviving in the world. Complete sets of characters and matrices and an extensive library with a Gutenberg Bible, geographical books, a book describing herbs. To much to mentione all. If you ever have the chance to visit you will not regret it.

Antwerp Old Buildings

From our hotel it was a 20 minutes walk to the inner city and we passed many old houses.

This house looks so old, probably 16th century.

You can imagine how people have lived here long time ago.

I always like this very much, a building at the head of two streets.

The MAS

The MAS, (Museum on the Stream) in Antwerp has opened this spring and is a real eyecatcher.

The red towers of the MAS are covered with hand-cut Indian stone and the curved glass panels are at least six meters high. The MAS is designed as a giant storehouse with stacked containers or "boxes". These museum boxes are stacked in such a way that they create a spiral tower. As you ascend, you get a constantly changing view of the city. On the roof you get a 360 o panorama over Antwerp.

You have a free walk upstairs to the tenth floor which we did, we were more interested in the building than the museum, so we will visit the museum-collections an other time.

The view over Antwerp was not so good, we had a bit strange weather, very warm but a bit misty.

A view in the entrance hall.

Antwerp

I have been in Antwerp the last few days. We went specially to see this spectacluar new building. I tell you more about it tomorrow.