Category Archives: Sculptures

Frankfurt to Stuttgart, Germany

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Day 37     Monday, October 6, 2025

On our drive to Stuttgart we stop at Worms, Germany. Worms is pronounced Vurmz. We passed through this huge gate on the bridge over the Rhine River.

We find a place to park on the street but have to move to a parkade because the street machine won’t take our euros…big surprise!  St Peter’s Cathedral is our first stop but we can’t find the door to get inside!  

In our walk around the church I see steps leading into what looked like a private area, but I take a look anyways and it is actually a public garden so we go inside. When I see something like this I am so curious. I wonder what it is, why it is there and where does it lead to?

Turns out this garden marks the location where Martin Luther refused to recant his beliefs at the Diet of Worms in 1521. This was the beginning of the Protestant Church and its split from the Catholic Church. These large bronze shoes in Worms’ Heylshof Park shoes are part of a 2017 memorial sculpture, which allows visitors to symbolically “step into Luther’s shoes” at the spot where he stood and defended his doctrines.

 A ‘Diet’ was an assembly or meeting of authorities to make decisions on important matters. The Diet of Worms of 1521 was convened to determine how political and religious authorities should respond to Martin Luther’s teachings. Because the Diet was held in Worms, it is know as the Diet of Worms which still makes me smile because of course I think of eating worms.

We leave the garden and go back to the church, passing a kindergarten with this colourful mosaic mural.

St Peters Cathedral is another cathedral that escaped destruction during the war.  Curious, I did a bit of of research and learned that the high belltowers and steeples of cathedrals were used by the Allies as navigational landmarks and that sometimes military planners made conscious efforts to protect major cultural and religious sites. So perhaps not divine intervention after all?

We do finally find small side door that allows us entrance to the church. There is an art display in the cathedral by a group called Atelierblau.  There are some really interesting pieces. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the names of the artists or the works they created. Here are a few of them.

The sign on the trunk reads “A thousand roses for a thousand lives”.

There are several large sculptural pieces that are from the church cloister.  I think they were placed inside the church as a method of keeping them safe from damage.

Built with red sandstone between the years 1130 and 1181, the church has a relatively simple interior……except for the choir and altar.
Bob noticed a side entrance to the crypt which contains the tombs of early rulers from 990 to 1040 AD.
Outside I see what appears to be ancient graffiti.

This fountain is at the end of part of the old town wall.

More graffiti, only on a tree this time.

This little bird sculpture with its huge beak, ragged wings and stubby body caught our eye…we both really liked it.

The Luther Monument is a group of statues. Martin Luther stands surrounded by bronze statues of the individuals that supported him. Plaques of the towns that supported Luther and the Protestant Reformation are placed on the walls of the monument.

This monument is in a lovely park near the Cathedral. There is a model of the statue with information in Braille, which was unique.
Back on the road I finally manage to get a photo of the Ausfahrt sign…which simply means Exit. I remember that we found this quite hilarious on our first trip to Germany with our daughter many years ago.

Next stop is Heidelberg where we are going to visit Heidelberg Castle that Bob says is like Versailles. We have a hard time finding the entrance to the funicular, even using Google Maps!  Finally I notice a small picture of a train on the wall of what looks like the entrance to a mall…we only walked past it two times! The part of the journey we take is all underground.

We walk to the castle but all we see is ruins…turns out Bob mixed up his castles!  It is fine though as this looks interesting anyways.  There is an in depth tour through the ruins in an hour and a half but we decide to just wander and see what we can.  This gate was built in one night by King Frederick V for his wife as a birthday present.

Our funicular ticket gives us access to the courtyard, the German Pharmacy Museum, and the Big Wine Barrel.  We walk through the gate to the courtyard…

…and we are greeted with views of the ruins of what must have been a very impressive castle

Walking through the doorway in the above photo we arrive on a huge balcony overlooking the Rhine River with views of Heidelberg below.A view of the ruins as seen from the balcony.

It is cold out so we go inside to see the Big Wine Barrel.  It is pretty impressive and I take this photo and then walk around the corner while Bob is inspecting the barrel. I come back and tell him “You need to come and see the BIG Wine Barrel!

Here it is!

This wine barrel held 220,000 liters of wine. The stairs I am standing on lead to a platform above the barrel that was likely used as a dance floor! 

Last stop is the German Apothecary Museum. It is warm inside, which I really appreciate.  Aspirin was a commercially sold product in 1889. 

This chest of homeopathic medicines from 1890 contains 312 vials of homeopathic remedies.

What is it about chests with lots of little drawers that I find so appealing?

Of course, ground unicorn horns were in big demand as a cure for ailments such as fever, plaque, poisoning convulsions and epilepsy! Unicorn horns were just long tusks from narwhals or other animals but they were an expensive medication reserved for royalty and the very rich.

An early distillery…

…bunsen burners and a telescope from 1780.We had such a hard time finding the entrance to the funicular and wondered where this castle was located…well, on our way back to the parkade I Iooked up…and there it was!  We both laughed, but then we couldn’t find the entrance to the parkade!  We looked everywhere and finally walked down the out ramp, and there was the door to the exit.  We checked it out and the stairs outside were right beside the ramp we just walked down…no sign or markers though!

Back on the road to stuttgart…and it is raining again.

Mainz, Germany and Gutenburg Bible

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Day 35    Saturday,  October 4, 2025

It is a 45 minute drive to Mainz, and Bob has several items on our ‘must see’ agenda. First stop is the market. The flowers at these markets are always so beautiful and very reasonably priced.

The main sculpture in the main square (market) of Mainz is the Heunensäule, or Hay Column. It is a 1,000-year-old sandstone column with a bronze casing, depicting various symbols of Mainz’s history and culture like a fool’s cap and bishop’s miter. It is in the market square in front of the Mainz Cathedral. 

I like this wishing well and we both toss in a coin and make our wishes.

We both like the interestingly shaped squash…we might have to try growing some next year.

We have seen these coloured eggs in the grocery stores and wondered what they were. Turns out they are hard boiled eggs that are coated in a tinted resin that keeps them fresh for months! The colour helps to identify them as being hard boiled.

Gorgeous sunflowers!  I am definitely planting some of them in our garden next year.  They are so cheerful. Next stop in the Mainz Cathedral.  We are met at the door and told that there is a concert starting and if we enter the church we have to stay for the 45 minute concert.  Sounds perfect as it is raining and cool outside!
We spend the next 45 minutes listening to an amazing organ concert to commemorate the new cathedral organ.  The musician, Alexander Grün, is only 25 years old and has three Masters Degrees!  He plays some traditional organ music and then music that is innovative. The 45 minutes absolutely flew by.  I sketched for a bit while listening to the music.  Loved it. I wish I had recorded more of the music, especially the finale of the concert…it gave me goosebumps!      https://youtube.com/shorts/HykSsp-S-9E

There are fall foods displayed on the steps to the altar to remind people to give thanks for the harvest, and to share with those in need.  

The Cathedral cloister has a beautifully tended garden,

Bob liked this statue statue of a man holding his head. This is probably Saint Denis, who was beheaded but picked up his head and walked some distance, preaching the Gospel.

The buildings surrounding the market square are tall, narrow and decoratively painted.
Next on Bob’s agenda is a visit to a small museum underneath a shopping mall. We see Roman ruins from before the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. These ruins were discovered when excavations began for the shopping mall. The area was thoroughly excavated and recorded, but ultimately the mall was built and most of the ruins were destroyed.

This little museum has the reconstructed ruins of a temple, under a ceiling of constellations. Some of the items found when the ruins were excavated.  Well endowed males were well represented.

Our final stop in Mainz is to visit the Gutenburg Museum, which is connected to a small Natural History Museum. This display in the entrance is quite striking.

We start with the Gutenburg Museum which shows the impact of Johahannes Gutenburg’s invention of a moveable type printing press in 1440.  This press allowed for the printing of 3600 pages a day, compared to 40 by hand printing and only a few by hand copying. There were  several beautiful ancient books on display. This Atlas of the World was printed in 1482.

The World Chronicle is from 1493.

An ornate Columbia Printing Press from 1824.  

We are given a blank card that has a chip installed inside the paper when we entered the museum.  We place this card into a machine that takes a selfie of us. Then we take the still blank card to a modern printer and this is what we received.

Entering a small room with dim lighting we see the Gutenburg Bibles. Only 49 of the approximately 180 printed Gutenberg Bibles have survived and the Gutenberg Museum owns two. The complete two-volume Bible shown in the bottom of this photo was added to the collection in 1978. The second Bible is incomplete, with only the second volume surviving. The book in the top right is a calligraphed manuscript.

The Bibles were only printed in black ink – two or more colors would have been too time-consuming and expensive. Spaces for colored ornamentation were left empty and the books were handed over to an illumination workshop. As a result, all surviving editions have different ornamentation.

The Missale Moguntinum, was hand written on parchment between 1453 – 1459.

I love that the guide lines are still visible. Imagine writing this huge book. Gutenburg’s press changed how books were produced and made them available to so many more people. Seeing these bibles in person is special but I am still in awe of beautiful hand written and illustrated books.  

In the mid-15th century before printed books were readily available, the demand for books could not be met. One solution was to produce books faster. This was why copies of the “Speculum Humanae Salvationis” or “Mirror of Human Salvation,” were created in cursive and quick pen-and-ink drawings. The volumes are dated around 1450, making them approximately the same age as the printed Gutenberg bibles.

We wander through the Natural History Museum. I wonder how archaeologists are able to reconstruct skulls and bones from a pile of fragments.  It must be a very difficult puzzle.

The Wooly Rhino had a huge head compared to the rest of its body.  There are samples of real wooly rhino hair on view that were found preserved in permafrost.

I thought these fossils were really beautiful.  The plants, insects and other animals are preserved in the finest detail. They are incredible.

We forgot to check what this prehistoric creature was.  

There are a few more displays of stuffed animals.  I thought this one of different types of rabbits was interesting. It is a small museum so it doesn’t take too long to see everything.

I know this is a strange photo, but this is the handicapped washroom at the museum.  I’ve never seen a public washroom like this.

We walk along cobbled sidewalks with reminders that summer is over on our way to see the next sight on the agenda in Manz.

This huge fountain is the Fastnachtsbrunnen, or Carnival Fountain. It is almost nine meters high and has over 200 bronze figures from the Mainz Carnival Mythology. Every year on November 11, at 11:11 pm, people celebrating Carnival in Mainz gather here. When the clock strikes 11:11 pm the carnival officially begins.  

Our last stop before heading home is St. Stephen Church. This is the only German church for which the Jewish artist Marc Chagall created windows.

In 1978, the first window by the 91-year-old Chagall was installed. Chagall completed the final church window shortly before his death at the age of 97! Although all the windows are beautiful, I didn’t find the blue light in the church appealing…it felt too sombre,

Time to drive home…this was a very full day!

Quiet Day and Jazz Festival in Frankfurt. Germany

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Day 34     October 3, 2025

We spend time last night sorting out why my Orange E-Sim is no longer working. Yes, another technical problem! You know the saying that you need to laugh or you would cry? Bob calls the help line and he finally figures out what happened.  My E-sim needed to be registered to extend its use beyond 30 days, which we did, but apparently we needed to do this within 20 days of buying the E-Sim. There were no messages from Orange that said that this had to be done within 20 days. It took two phone calls, and purchasing another E-Sim, but now my phone is working again.

I spend the rest of the day at home and Bob goes back to Frankfurt because there is a Jazz Festival this afternoon. He didn’t take any photos of the Festival but these are from his walk around Frankfurt. Some of the modern high-rises in Frankfurt.

The Marshall Fountain has three bronze water nymphs that  represent the maidens of Goethe´s classic novel “Faust”. The Old Opera House had been bombed down to its foundation walls during WWII, and was rebuilt to the original design.

The MyZeil is a shopping mall has a unique design, a hole in the wall.

We saw this same shopping mall yesterday from the top of the bell tower we climbed. These two figures represent East and West Germany. Today was a holiday for the Reunification of Germany.

Two buildings, one old and one new and then home.

 

 

Frankfurt, Germany

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Day 33     Thursday, October 2, 2025

We take a train into Frankfurt.  Once we had our tickets it was easy but once again we had problems using one of our credit cards.  This trip has been a challenge with credit card, debit card and cell phone issues.  I am beginning to think we are jinxed!  It is so good to be traveling together. I think if either of us were trying to sort out these problems on our own it would be much more difficult. The saga continues as we find the Hertz car rental company in the train station.  This trip we are told we need to extend our car rental contract every 30 days by simply checking in to any Hertz office.  Well, it turns out that a Hertz office in Germany cannot extend  contracts that was signed in another country. Sorting this out takes more than an hour and we are still not sure it actually will be taken care of.  We will see.

We walk down the street across from the train station. I am struck by the contrast between the old and the modern buildings.  I should have paid a bit more attention to the signs on the storefronts.

After a man and his lady friend propositioned me we noticed that we were walking through the red-light district!  We had a bit of a chuckle!

Nearly 70% of Frankfurt was destroyed during the Second World War but many of the buildings look older than they actually are.

There were four of these massive sculptures supporting the bridge across the street in the above photo.

In1405, two houses were joined together to make Frankfurt’s City Hall. It is a striking building.

Saturday is a popular day to get married and there is a steady parade of weddings taking place. The bridal couple and their guests wait outside for their turn to be married. It seems strange to me but is perfectly normal here.

We have our picnic lunch on the banks of the Rhine River and then visit this pedestrian bridge. ‘Love locks’ are covering this bridge.  I suspect that before long authorities will have to remove these locks before their weight begins to damage the bridge because of their weight like the bridge in Paris that was covered with locks.

Saint Bartholomew Cathedral is the only church in Frankfurt that survived the bombing of WWII.  Divine intervention?

As we enter the church we see this group of sculptures depicting Christ being crucified on Calvary Hill.  

The cathedral was built in the Gothic style between 1315 and 1358, but suffered a fire in 1867 and then the bombing of Frankfurt in 1944. The reconstruction after these events changed parts of the church. Today it is a hall church with three naves.  The cathedral’s organ is impressive and has a different layout of pipes.

I saw two priests walking out of the church and hurried to take a photo.  They look like they belong in another age and appear very intense.

The cathedral’s bell tower has survived from the 15th century and we are climbing it. This is the view from about halfway up the 66 meter high tower.

We are above the gargoyles.

I will admit that I needed to stop and rest a few times as we climbed 328 steps to the viewing platform, although there were people much younger than me were who huffing and puffing more than I was!  We had a spectacular view of Frankfurt.

Some views from the tower.

We walk around the platform several times.  I wasn’t going to climb all those steps for one quick tour around the tower!

We begin our descent of those 328 steps.  I am very thankful that they are solid stone and I don’t have to contend with see-through wire steps, specially as this is the only staircase to access the tower. We have to squeeze to the side when people pass us their way up the stairs.  

The view through a glass window in the stairwell.

This is the tower…

and here is the viewing platform above the clock! If you look closely you can see the platform railings.

Next we visit the indoor market. I am so tempted to buy some flowers.

Edelweiss and Gentians, two of my favourite flowers.

Everything is so colourful and looks delicious.

Produce doesn’t look this appealing at home.

The leeks are enormous!  We buy some pastry for a snack and I even find a slice of yummy gluten free apple cake.

Heading back to the train station we do a bit of window shopping.  We don’t buy souvenirs as a rule.  It is just too difficult to carry purchases around during an extended trip.

These characters made us laugh. This store carried some interesting merchandise.

I am always kind of shocked to see semi-automatic weapons and other guns on display in store windows!  

In front of the train station this group of friends are all wearing Lederhosen.  I think it was for some special event as they were taking photos of themselves.

Back to the train station to head home.  Another full day!

Fontoy, France to Frankfurt, Germany

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Day 30    Monday, September 29, 2025

Today is a travel day to Frankfurt Germany and we have been travelling for month already. Bob says we have to stop and see another Eiffel Tower along the way but it is not quite as impressive as the one in Paris!

We had no idea that this is wine country.  There are vineyards on both sides of the road as far as we can see.

The hills around each town we pass are all growing row after row of grapes.  We see the odd group harvesting grapes but the main harvest occurred earlier this month.

We stop in Trier and have our picnic lunch on a bench with this view.

The breeze blew water spray and made a rainbow just as I took this photo.

This foot of Emperor Constantine is a replica of one of the largest marble foots to have survived since antiquity. It was part of a 12 metre high seated statue of Constantine.

The Roman Baths are considered to be the largest Roman baths outside of Rome. 

The ruins are impressive!

We are able to walk through the underground tunnels that would have been used as a service level for the maintenance of the bath’s heating system. This is the entrance to the tunnels.

There was a group of schoolchildren ahead of us…probably the loudest group we have encountered on our travels! We took a side tunnel to avoid walking behind them. There are a maze of tunnels and we are free to explore as we wish. That is Bob peeking around the bend in the tunnel.

We do get a bit lost down here, but it was a lot of fun exploring these interesting tunnels.

Which way should we go!

This photo shows the size of the original baths, although they were never actually completed. The ruins of today are superimposed on the original baths.

The ruins are impressive, but they are only half the height of the original structure! We pass this lovely garden on the way to visit Trier’s cathedral.

Photos really do not show how beautiful and enormous the trees are. I wish we were able to grow trees this large back home. These trees wouldn’t survive our colder climate.

Trier Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest cathedral in Germany. Construction started in the 4th century and it was built upon the foundations of ancient Roman structures.

And yes, the inside of the cathedral is very impressive.

It has one of the most ornate organs we have seen… and many huge sculptures with multiple figures. We walk up these stairs for a view of the nave. This beautiful blue and white Baroque stucco work decorates the choir loft of the Cathedral. It is stunning and unusual. This is the first time we have seen anything like this in a cathedral.

We pass this building on the way to the Nigra Gate. There are many ornately decorated buildings in Trier.

I love watching the bubble makers, and the children trying to catch the bubbles. This fellow made huge bubbles…

and lots of smaller bubbles.  I would love to know how to do this.

At the end of the street we can see the Nigra Gate, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Porta Nigra, or Black Gate, is the largest Roman gate in Northern Europe.  It was part of the defensive walls and gates that surrounded Trier in 200AD. It is  incredibly well preserved, especially when you consider that it was completed around 200AD, and it almost two thousand years old!

We pay 6€ each to climb inside the gate. This ‘window’ has a pile of coins, perhaps people making a wish?

A view inside the gate.

We can see the Trier Cathedral from the second level of the gate.

Grafiti has been around for a long time.  Some of the dates on the walls are hundreds of years old.  I do really hate this practice of defacing monuments.

There is Bob, I sent him down to the street so he could take a photo of me in one of the gate arches.

Here I am.These carved decorations are still in remarkably good condition.

Walking back to our car we stop for a photo of the Electoral Palace. We had our lunch in its beautiful gardens which have many white statues and small ponds.

Another gorgeous tree.

The clouds are moving in on our drive home.

Big black ominous clouds.

We arrive at our Airbnb in Frankfurt. It is smaller than our last place but cozy and has everything we need.

Brussels to Fontoy, France

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Day 23     Monday, September 22, 2025

We are driving to Fontoy, France but we have a couple of stops planned on the way.  The first stop is Dinant where we visit a cave called La Grotte la Marveilleuse, or The Wonderful Cave. We are given a brief description of the route we will be taking inside the cave as it is self-guided. We walk down several flights of stairs and are surprised how big the cave is and the variety of formations we see.

Some of them are very impressive. There are some rather large stalagmites

This white limestone formation is called The Glacier. There are stalactites of all sizes hanging from the roof and walls of the cave.
The interesting thing is that this is actually a living cave.  There is water dripping from stalactites and landing on stalagmites. It takes centuries for these formations to show appreciable growth…only about 10 centimetres over a thousand years!
This is the biggest cavern, called the Grande Salle. The railings look like wood but they are actually made of reinforced concrete made to like tree branches.

Even with the little bit of light from this small bulb moss starts to grow.

More stalagmites and stalactites.

This cave was discovered in 1904 by workmen making a road. They uncovered a small cavern, and reported their find to the land owners.  Realizing the tourist potential of this discovery, the owners added electricity and gradually the railings and stairs. In 1934 a long tunnel was constructed that connected the cave to another exit so that visitors did not have to retrace their steps to leave the cave.  During the Second World War 300 townspeople hid in this tunnel to escape the Germans.   We are 95 meters below the surface!
At the end of the tunnel we climbed this long stairway with 120 steps to the exit.  There are about 350 stairs to climb on the whole tour along with many long downward sloping walkways. We enjoyed our tour of this cave. It is strange to think that we were so far underground and neither of us felt at all claustrophobic.

Dinant is an interesting little town, situated along both banks of this river.  It is also where Alphonso Sax invented the saxophone in 1840.

The Citadel high above the town looks interesting but we don’t have time for a visit. Back on the road headed towards Rocheport.

We drive over this pretty bridge and find a spot to park for tea and cookies in Rocheport and then we go for a little walk before heading towards our next Airbnb at Fontoy, France.

Every town, no matter how small, has a church, but this is the first church I remember seeing that has flower baskets by the entrance door.  

This is a an interesting building. We think it might be a single family dwelling as there is only one house number on the building.

This strange statue is of a popular Belgium comedian, Raymond Devos (1922 – 2006) who is supposed to be popping out of a box, like a Jack in the box.  I thought that he had his feet in a cement block, like gansters used!

I liked the flowers at this intersection but then we see the poster below showing the damage to this area on Christmas Day 1944.

I loved the colours of these leaves. We see a truck with beautiful ochre coloured sand and then peek inside this building under renovation to see what it is being used for.  Not exactly a do-it-yourself job!
The doorway that we looked into is right next to this house with the gorgeous red geraniums.

It is rush hour and there are ‘Deviations’ which mean detours and lots of traffic.  We count 153 trucks in a row that are not moving at all on the highway.  Thankfully they are not going in our direction!

We see these huge crosses along the highway near the end of our trip, but I am unable to find any information about them.

Waterloo, Belgium and the Defeat of Napoleon

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Day 19     Thursday, September 18, 2025

We are on the road by 10:00, heading to Waterloo which is the site of the famous Battle that ended Napoleon’s French Empire. The roads can be challenging to drive. Many are fairly narrow and today we share the road with trolley cars, automobiles, trucks, motorcyclists and bicyclists! There is a lot to pay attention to and Bob its doing an amazing job driving.  I am usually a good navigator but I didn’t have the best night and today we get to Waterloo in spite of my navigating!! The Wellington Museum was easy to find and there was free parking nearby.  The museum is located in the building that the British Duke of Wellington used as his headquarters when he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in1815.  The soldiers uniforms displayed are, from left to right, the French Carabiniers, the British Light Dragoons and the British 8th Hussars.

The museum has a room with weapons used during the Battle of Waterloo.

A lot of artwork, paintings and information about the battle and even the death mask of Napoleon which I find rather unsettling.

The French troops had to forage to survive, and many soldiers died of disease, malnutrition and exhaustion brought on by the extremely difficult conditions they endured.  Meanwhile the French generals travelled with dining sets that included items like crystal containers and silver and gold plated egg cups and spoons!

Soldiers were treated by amputating injured limbs to prevent gangrene. This is a typical surgeons kit for amputations which were performed quickly without anaesthetic and in five minutes. The saws and other medical equipment were not cleaned between patients so the post operative mortality rate was very high.

If you survived the amputation and had enough money your prosthetic leg could look like this.  I imagine most common soldiers made do with some sort of simple wooden peg leg.

We cross a patio to enter another part of the museum and are surprised to find a huge Playmobile exhibition titled ‘A History of Empires’.  There are 16 display cases, each depicting a different time in history.

The war between Julius Caesar and the Gauls in 54 B.C. Rome’s first race course built in 599 B.C.

A naval Battle but I don’t remember which one.

The Roman Coliseum. We really enjoyed this unusual exhibit and marvelled at the thousands and thousands of Playmobile figures and accessories that were used to create these dioramas. This very old St. Joseph Church from 1690 is right across the street so we had a look.

The area under the dome is huge and the church itself has large columns on either side of the nave. We have visited many churches and Cathedrals on our travels, but they are all so different from one another.  

The road in front of the Church is cobble-stoned and we can see the depressions in the road made over the years by cart wheels.

I adore these white and pink small daisy-like flowers.  No idea what they are called but wish we could grow them back home.

Next we drive to ‘The Lion’s Mound’ which is located at the site of the Waterloo Battle. This earthen cone is 169 m in diameter and 41 m high. An enormous lion, 4.50 m long, 4.45 m high and weighing 28 tons is located on the top of the mound.

It symbolizes the victory of the monarchies; its open mouth is turned towards France, defeated; its paw resting on the terrestrial globe represents the peace that Europe has won. Bob went for a walk all the way around the  mound but I was tired and it was cold and windy so I stayed in the car. We hit rush hour on the way home. I am so glad I am not driving!

Visiting Brussels

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Day 18     Wednesday, Sept 17, 2025

We have fairly relaxing morning. We call our bank and sort out an issue with our debit card and last night we had to call one of our Mastercards because it got blocked…because we are in Belgium.  Yet they don’t want to know that we are travelling anymore!  So it caused problems when we tried to add it to our Apple Wallet.  Same thing has happened to our other Mastercard, so we still have that to sort out tonight. I guess we should have done some things before we left home…like putting our email address as the contact to verify our cards when we  use them online instead of it being our home land line!  But who knew?

Once we sorted that out I worked on my paper journal, drawing some animals at the Lille Zoo from photo reference.  Not as much fun as drawing at the zoo but it was cold and windy and we didn’t have a lot of time there.  Drawing from reference photos is a good way to familiarize myself with the shapes and anatomy of animals and birds. This helps when I am able to draw at zoos in person. I set a time limit for a page so that I don’t spend too long. It is more like drawing live that way.

We catch the train into downtown Brussels which involved a 20 minute walk because in order to use Brussel’s busses or trolley cars you need to have a contactless debit card or use Apple Wallet. Our problem is our Debit cards should work after we called the bank last night to sort out the problem, but they still don’t, so we can’t use them. My MC won’t load onto Apple Wallet because of problems trying to verify it! So we walk to a train station were we can buy a paper ticket. Unfortuntely there doesn’t seem to be any place near us to purchase paper tickets for the bus or trolley cars.  

A half hour later after a very smooth rain ride we arrive in Brussels.  First stop is to see the Mannekin Pis Fountain.  It is the most famous fountain in Brussels.  The last time we visited this little statue was 46 years ago on our first trip to Europe. 

I used to have the cutest little wooden plaque with sculpture of the Mannekin Pis but somehow lost it. I wanted to buy a new one…well that sure didn’t happen! All the souvenirs were incredibly tacky, and ridiculously expensive as you can see in this photo.  So no souvenir for me.  We did buy two postcards to send to our grandchildren and after we left the store the owner chased me down about a block away from the store.  He insisted that I had stolen one of the key chains that we had been looking at. He said he had it on camera, so we went back to the store and I told him, in French, to look at his camera. I said that I am not a thief and that I didn’t even touch the key chain he was accusing me of stealing. I am sure I looked guilty, I felt hot and I am sure my face was red. After a few minutes of conversation and looking at his security footage he admitted that he made a mistake and apologized. We chatted a bit more, and all was well. I shook his hand and said I understood how hard it must be when he does have people steal from him almost every day.  

We see one of the big pink sculptures that we saw all over Paris two years ago. The enormous  candy-pink sculptures created by Philippe Katerine are now on display in Brussels.

The Grand Palace Plaza is surrounded on all sides with very ornate buildings…

….including the City Hall…

…and the Brussels City Museum.  I am done in and need some tea and pastries. I think being accused of stealing was rather emotionally exhausting. It wasn’t easy to find a coffee shop. We had to walk several blocks but found one with a quiet table away from all the smokers.  We had a pot of mint tea with real mint leaves and the most delicious croissant and Portuguese tart.  

We pass a shop with these ‘toy’ cars in the window. The white and red car are €219.90 each, and the green and orange ones are ‘only’ €579.05 each!  This is $941.61 Canadian! I wonder who buys these expensive model cars.

The Cathedral Saints-Michel-et-Gudule is another enormous cathedral. 

The Nave stretches into the distance. The statues on the pillars are the Twelve Apostles. There are many stunning stained glass windows surrounding the ornate altar.

This sculpted scene called ‘Entombment’ is beautiful. Cathedrals often have amazing art work.

The pulpit is an intricately carved wooden masterpiece.

We are hungry and head back to this little square to buy some of Brussels famous frites with mayonnaise.  No photo, we were hungry and they were gone in no time. Bob is walking towards the train station.

We took a wrong turn on our way to the train station and discovered this enormous white Smurf. Of course we needed a photo!

I had a little rest beside several of these beautiful flower towers.

On our walk from the train station back to our apartment I see another sign that Autumn is coming.  It is still unseasonably cool for this time of the year. 16 Celsius and windy.

There are many very large houses along the walk home.  This one has its own magnificent tree.

We have never stayed in a neighbourhood with so many large houses…maybe mansions would be a better term?

There is such a variety of styles. Some traditional and some more modern looking.

This is the lane behind our bnb, which has a huge corner lot. This black cat was determined to cross my path as we returned from getting groceries, but I figured we had enough challenges for the day so I managed to avoid him!

Our bnb has its very own little robot lawn mower…it the cutest thing as it maneuvers itself about the yard cutting the grass.

Amiens, France

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Day 13.    Friday, September 12, 2025

It is an hour drive to Amiens from Arras where we will visit Jules Verne’s house, the largest cathedral in France, and take a unique boat ride.

We luck out and find a parking space right beside the Jules Verne museum.  Parking downtown in French cities is very difficult, there are more cars than spaces available.  We have our picnic lunch in a little park right by the museum but these chestnuts were falling and landing with a crash around us…the spikes on the green fruit are very sharp and we decide to move to a safer bench.

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright.  Jules Verne is the second most translated author in the world, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare.  His novel Around the World in 80 Days is printed in 18 languages.

The winter garden was the original entrance to the Jules Verne house.  Tropical garden plants were moved indoors here to spend the winter.

The dining room and salon on the main floor.

One of the second floor rooms was a reconstruction of his first boat.  Jules Verne loved to sail and his first boat was a 9 metre long.  His second boat was 20 meters in length and the third was 30 meters!  

This second floor room was a library. The second photos shows the original library with over 12,000 books.  When he read these books Jules Verne wrote notes on index cards to use as reference information for his novels.

From 1882 to 1900 Jules Verne wrote every day from 5:00 am until 11:00 am in this little room.

Climbing the tower which was added to the house by Jules Verne.  It allows access to all three floors of the house.

The third floor attic has a collection of original movie posters…

…and other memorabilia.  I look like I am one of the exhibits!

Bob and a fictional flying machine from one of Verne’s novels.  A view from the front of the house showing the winter garden.

it is a short walk to the Amiens cathedral. Notre-Dame d’Amiens is the largest medieval cathedral in the world.  It was built in 1269 and is twice the size of Notre Dame in Paris.

The sculpted decorations in the portals have survived in a remarkable state of preservation…

…and the 16th century wood carvings of the choir stalls are unique in the world.

Sandbags were used to protect the exterior and interior of the church during WWI.  The stained glass windows were removed and stored elsewhere.  Unfortunately there was a fire and some of the windows were destroyed.  A bomb did fall directly on the church but it did not detonate. Whether by faulty fuse, divine intervention or sheer luck, the cathedral stood unharmed.  Info and photo~ church heritage.eu

This is a massive cathedral…

…with stunning stained glass windows.

Do you see the people? They give a sense of scale.

Looking towards the richly decorated altar…

and in the opposite direction, the organ that was built in 1549…

which has just been cleaned and restored.

Love this statue of Joan of Arc.

There is also a labyrinth from 1288.When we leave the cathedral, I look up and there are the gargoyles!  I am very fond of gargoyles.
We have time to walk back to the car for tea and cookies and a little down time before we get ready for our boat ride at the Hortillonages.

Shaped by generations of market gardeners known as ‘hortillons’, this site is the only one of its kind in France. The Hortillonnages are made up of a multitude of small cultivated islets surrounded by water, accessible only by boat on a network of waterways

We spend a relaxing 45 minutes travelling these waterways. We see market gardens, private gardens, cottages and some islands that look very wild and unkept.

The Hortillonnages have been here since ancient times. They are located on the naturally marshy terrain of the old bed of the River Somme. The site’s name has its origins in the Latin ‘hortus’ meaning garden. Nowadays, the ownership of this 300-hectare site is shared by over 1000 individuals who use it for market gardening or leisure activities such as gardening, fishing, and observing nature.

Walking back to our car we pass yet another war memorial, a reminder of the war and those who fought and died for France.

Lens Louvre

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Day 12.   Thursday, November 11, 2025

I did not know that the Louvre had a satellite museum.  It is located in Lens, which is about 25 minutes from Arras.  There is free parking and the museum is free to visit.  We arrive early afternoon and walk up a tree lined lane to the entrance to the museum.

The first thing we see on entering the museum is this Gothic Bulldozer. It is very intricate and difficult to photograph.  Zoom in for a closer look.Downstairs is an exhibit of Ukrainian Icons. Today the term «icon» refers primarily to paintings made with tempera (egg-bound pigments) on a prepared wood panel. Icons are also characterised by the use of gold leaf.  Museums around the world are safekeeping artwork from the Uraine until the war ends. The Louvre-Lens has four of Ukraine’s Icon paintings on display. This is The Last Judgement by Theodore Poulakis, 1661.

Alongside this exhibition space is a glass wall that allows visitors to view works in the restoration area of the Museum.The main exhibit at the museum is The Gallery of Time.

The Gallery of Time is an original showcase for a variety of art forms from different civilisations, all of which come together in an open-plan layout covering some 3,000 square metres. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the story of more than 5,000 years of human history and artistic creation. The Gallery of Time takes visitors on a chronological journey from the 4th millennium BCE to the 19th century, drawing on the collections of the Musée du Louvre and on other works which combine to tell a story of human creation, from the earliest recorded times to the most recent.
 

This is the beginning of The Gallery of Time. The first exhibit is the Roc-de-Sers, a stone with a carved horse that was part of a frieze found in a shallow cave in the south west of France. It is from 18,000 BC.

Some views of more than 250 pieces of art on display in this huge gallery.

And here, in no particular order, are a few of the pieces that we found especially interesting.

Francois Rude, Christ on the Cross.  Rude started this marble sculpture in 1885 but died before it was completed.  His student and nephew Jean Baptiste Paul Cabet completed it.  I found it very moving, and marvelled at being able to carve the crown of thorns in marble!

The Martyrdom of Saint Hippolyte, Cathedral of Sant-Denis, France, c. 1225-1250,  My first thought seeing this was what would it feel like to be pulled apart by horses? Egyptian Tomb Portrait of a Woman c. 150 AD.  I love these tomb paintings.  We saw several of them years ago when we visited Egypt.  Pieter Boel, c.1669-1671 Triple study of an Ostrich. 

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Paris 1714-1785, The Child and the Cage and The Girl with a Bird and an Apple. I fell in love with this two cherubic statues.  The dimples and folds in their skin were so incredibly life-like.

Élisabeth-Sophie Chéron, (1648-1711), 1672 Self Portrait.  This is the oldest self portrait of a French female artist in the possession of a Museum.

The Marching Player, 1063 AD. This statue is a replica of a Greek bronze original created around 440-400 BC.  I love the detail in his feet and toes.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Milan, c. 1527-1593. We have seen other work by this artist…it is pretty distinctive. This is Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Rembrandt van Eijn, 1640-1660, Venus et L’Amour

Mourner’s Mask, New Caledonia c.1850

This was the last piece in the Gallery of Time.  A painting by Paul Delaroche, 1885, The Young Martyr.  A painting of a young woman who was killed for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

We have a much needed tea break. I asked how big the tea was and was assured that it was very big…well, this rather ‘very large” cup of tea was €5.50!  Bob finds a spot to read and I go back to the gallery to do some sketching.  They aren’t the best sketches but I had such an enjoyable time doing them.  Two people asked if they could take a photo…people are always interested in what I am drawing.

We stay until the museum closes at six and we are surprised to see it is raining outside.  The Louvre -Lens is a very modern building, so different than the Louvre in Paris.  We really enjoyed the Gallery In Time”. It was interesting, and not as overwhelming as the Louvre.