Bologna

Ingrid and Pucci had arranged some time ago for us to spend a non-work and non-boat weekend together. So, straight after school on Friday afternoon we set off for the six hour drive down to Bologna. Ingrid, being exhausted from work, was asleep almost before we hit the autobahn. It is actually not a boring trip. The first hour is getting to the Austrian border, then an hour across Austria which is all mountains and Alps. Even without the signs, you know when you cross the border into Italy, as everyone’s driving style changes from cruise to sport mode. The three hours from the Brenner Pass to Verona is all downhill along the Adige valley and quite fascinating Alpine scenery. The last hour across the flat Po delta was rendered quite interesting by an incredibly thick fog. Here you witness a huge variety of driving styles, from pedestrian to lunatic.

The first task on Saturday morning was to find the best cappuccino in Bologna. Pucci took us to the Gran Café in Via Altabelle in the centre of the old part of the city where we had a truly excellent coffee in a very genuine looking old café.

It was fun being a full-on tourist in a place where I had lived for 8 years, albeit 20 years ago. Aldo and Pucci found it to be an interesting novelty as well. If you are able to blinker out the modern day accoutrements of McDonalds, power lines and traffic it is very easy to be enveloped by the medieval atmosphere of the city centre.

We visited one of my favourite haunts, the Santo Stefano basilica, also known as le Sette Chiese (as it is a complex of seven churches, although I have only ever been able to find four or five of them.)

On Sunday, we went out into the country for a traditional long Romagna lunch of deep fried flat bread, piadina with salami, prosciutto, pickled greens and squacquerone, a very soft cheese produced in the Romagna part of the Appenines. As usual, it was gorgeous and we all overate.  So, bloated, we set off back up the autostrada home to Munich wanting never to see food again.

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Schrannenhalle

Sunday was one of those perfect, clear, very crisp Autumn days. So, being Lohhof out-of-towners we decided on a day out in the big city. We had seen the long wrought iron and glass structure just off the Viktualienmarkt and had heard that it had been renovated. The Schrannenhalle was originally a corn exchange and was 430m long. The 100m plus bit that remains has been restored and now offers somewhat upmarket culinary treats. Ingrid soon found the Champagne Bar and I found the best coffee in Munich (which may not necessarily be saying much!) The Michelin-starred restaurant in the market was packed, so we had some delightful pasta at one of our favourite cafes, Baricentro in Sebastiansplatz.

The air was so clear. Except for the near zero temperature, it seemed as if we were back in Perth on one of those days when you look out beyond Rottnest from Leighton Beach and the sea appears to curve away until it runs into Madagascar.

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Aschaffenburg

On the way home from Belgium, we took the opportunity to put another couple of blue dots on our Castles of Bavaria poster by staying overnight in Aschaffenburg in northern Bavaria. The next morning we visited the Johannisburg Palace and the Pompeiianum on the banks the Main River.

In the Palace museum we found the world’s largest collection of cork architectural models. These amazing intricately carved reproductions of the ruins of Rome were created by the court confectioner and his son in the 1790’s.

Later in the morning we ventured out of town to the Schoenbusch Palace. We wandered around the English style gardens and, being back in Germany, had lunch at the biergarten.

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Brussels

We had great expectations of Brussels, and we were not disappointed. Our day started on a high with morning coffee in the glorious Galeries St Hubert. This 213 m long, light filled, soaring retail arcade was Europe’s first shopping mall.

For a city that houses the centre of the EU in the European Commission with its thousands of Eurocrats, we were delighted to find that the most common desert is waffles.

Being the land of the Smurfs, Lucky Luke and Tintin it is no surprise that there exists The Belgian Comic Strip Centre. It is housed in the former Waucqez Warehouse, a glorious piece of art nouveau architecture by the master of this genre, Victor Horta.

As a theme for our wandering we spent a couple of hours trying to find as many of the 50 or so cartoon murals scattered throughout the city in sometimes surprising and fun locations.

On cousin Jen’s recommendation, I sought out The Museum of Musical Instruments. This is housed in the fantastic Art Nouveau iron and glass Old England building. The extensive collection of instruments is quite impressive, but I am afraid I spent more time looking at the structure of the building itself.

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Ghent

Ghent is a delight. So far, it’s our favourite place in Belgium. It has all the prerequisite canals, lanes, squares, medieval architecture, bars and museums as well as the Belfry which we climbed, of course. It has all the atmosphere of its better known neighbours, but apparently not the tourists.

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Antwerp

For our Belgium sojourn, we stayed with Craig, Sophie and Elliot who live in Ekeren, a very pleasant and leafy suburb in the north of Antwerp. We had the chance to see the extremely varied house architecture styles in the neighbouring suburb of Sint-Mariaburg on an agreeable late afternoon walk down to the local pub. Here we tried the first of the many gorgeous local beers. Next day we were given a guided tour of the city of Antwerp, taking in the shopping streets, the old quarter of the city, the main market square and then a walk along the River Schelde to the MAS art museum in the old docklands area. We climbed (escalated?) to the top for a magnificent panoramic view of the city and the docks.

I was sent off alone for a couple of hours to marvel at the Antwerp Central Railway Station. It was built around 1900 in a very eclectic style. The effect is cathedral-like, but possibly more useful. The platforms were recently expanded down another three levels in order to accommodate more local and high speed trains.

Antwerp has atmosphere and is full of interesting Belle Epoque, traditional and modern architecture, museums, art galleries, shops and cafes. We look forward to visiting some these when we return to catch up with the Cleator family. 

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