The people who gave Chicago the name “Windy City” have obviously never been to Belgium. The nine days my class spent in and around Flanders reminded me of the winds we got in Brunswick when hurricane Floyd was rolling through…Ok, I’m being dramatic, but seriously, the wind and rain we had to endure during the majority of our trip almost ruined it…
But…then there was the Belgian food that redeemed the Northern European cities. How do you say “delish” in Dutch? My guess is something that sounds like you said “delish” with peanut butter in your mouth. I’ll get back to the food, but first I’ll talk about the goal of the trip, which was to see good traditional architecture and urbanism. Oh yeah….that’s right…I almost forgot that’s what I came to Europe for after tasting the Belgian food.
This trip was much different than our other trips, mostly because we travelled with another professor: one who values long, yummy dinners and personal time more than my studio professor with whom we usually travel. Needless to say, this made the trip much more like a vacation and a break from our quick jaunts to multiple cities within a day.
The university arranged for our small group of six to stay in a quaint little house in Bruges for the entirety of our trip. Staying in a house rather than a hotel allowed us to stay in and cook group meals a few nights, which always helps with the bank account, but also exposed me to even more diverse meals within the 9 days. One night JiYeon and Huaxia cooked authentic Asian food. Another night Jenn and John (the married couple in my class) cooked a Sicilian Pasta/Vegetable dish that was delish (she gave me the recipe, so I might post it on here if any of you want to try something new). The night Robert and I volunteered to host satisfied a craving I’ve had since I left for Rome: Mexican. Yes, I was in Belgium cooking and eating Mexican food, but I couldn’t resist when I saw Old El Paso seasoning, salsa, and tortilla shells in the local grocery store. In case I haven’t stressed this, Italians are typically set in their ways and don’t sell other ethnic ingredients in their grocery stores, so it’s been difficult for me to cook anything but variations on pasta. All of you reading this probably know that cheese dip and burritos are somewhere at the top of my list of favorite food, so I made the group some super yummy fajitas with chicken and shrimp (which I bought at the local outdoor fish market that morning – hello freshness!). My stomach was happy. How did I just manage to write a really long paragraph about food but haven’t even begun to describe the Flemish food? I also realize I haven’t talked about the city yet.
Bruges is a city with medieval fabric that stood as the mercantile capital of Europe for centuries because of its location on the North Sea, or Nord Zee as the Flemish say, and along popular trade routes from England to southern European countries. Because of this commercial foundation, Bruges serves as a great link between the Roman medieval towns we’re seeing this semester and American cities. Ultimately, as an urban designer, I need to understand architectural typologies (church, town hall, house, etc.) and their relationship to urban spatial types (plaza, street, square, etc.), but I also need to experience how commercialism works within this framework of architecture and space. Hence the trip to Bruges…
Because the time we had in Bruges was about 15 times as much as we usually spend in one city on a field trip, we were able to do things that I would normally do on a vacation vs. a work trip (which is how our other trips have felt). We spent a lot of time in the several museums of the city, one of which had an exhibit on the history of the city. We also discovered that one can learn a great amount about urbanism and history just by studying the art in the public buildings. The Flemish Art was probably one of my favorite things about the trip. The Flemish Primitives, as they were dubbed because they worked before the geniuses of the Renaissance, were not so primitive. The realism and extreme talent expressed in the wax-based paintings were extraordinary. I was able to see one of the greatest known pieces of Flemish art when we took the train to Gent one day to see the Gent Altarpiece, aka Mystic Lamb or The Adoration of the Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers (14th century geniuses).
The day after Gent, we took the train to Antwerp where we miserably walked around in the rain all day. We went to mass in the Cathedral (When you travel with a bunch of Catholics, you manage to go to church every week…which is never a bad thing. The only bad thing is that it’s always in Italian, so I pretty much don’t follow any of it except the stand up/sit down/stand up/sit down part.). Coming back to Bruges from Antwerp that night was like walking through an umbrella graveyard. As I experienced days before when trying to sketch in the large open market square in the rain, the wind is intense when it whips around the corners of the buildings. Robert, too, experienced the worst of the wind when he went through two cheap umbrellas within the week. Huaxia was the funniest when she bought an umbrella that said “I Heart Sun” only to realize the umbrella didn’t heart her as much as she hearts sun…it broke within 24 hours of her buying it. Watching her struggle with it, however, was one of the highlights of the gloomy day for me (Naturally, I laugh at other people’s misery. Yes, I realize this makes me a mean person and karma will get me). Apparently that day we were in Antwerp was one of the worst days for wind because I saw probably 30 contorted umbrellas in and around trash cans within the 10 minute walk to dinner. In case you don’t believe me, check out my Picasa album. J
In the few hours of clear skies we had on Thursday, we rented bikes and rode out to the small village of Damme along the canal from Bruges to the North Sea. This was so much fun! The tree-lined trails were really beautiful, and the little town had all the necessities of a city within a very short walk. In true character, I enjoyed the food we ate there just as much (if not more) as the architecture and urbanism. I ate a delicious savory crepe, which is like a French pancake stuffed with ham, corn, and tomatoes . The French and German influence is obvious in all of the food in Belgium. My professor took us out on the school two nights for nice meals, and mm, mm, mmm – I ate well. The cuisine is typically heavy and rich – meat and potatoes type dishes. As a girl from the south, and more importantly a Watson, this was right up my alley. I feasted on shrimp in a garlic cream sauce, followed by rib eye and potatoes al gratin, and topped it all off with a yummy chocolate mousse. I did mention the school was paying for this, right? J I can’t believe I haven’t brought up the wonderful Belgian Beer that I proceeded to drink at every opportunity. The beer is probably what brings non-architects to Belgium. It’s that good. Robert and I would have our own little beer tastings each night, trying them based on how cool their glasses were that went along with them. Belgians always drink their beer in a glass – always, and the glass is shaped for the aroma/style of beer. It made me feel pretty swanky, and I realized there isn’t a beer I don’t like. What does that say about me? Don’t judge.
Leaving Belgium was pretty sad because I had to say goodbye to a restful, tasty time to return to Rome (how dreadful, right? ;) ) only to do laundry, pack, and prepare for another long trip two days later to Veneto and Tuscany. I actually just got back to Rome from this 11 day trip, so as you can imagine, I haven’t had a lot of time to write this blog post between seeing amazing places like Piazza San Marco, the Florence Cathedral, and Palladian villas. More to come on that trip…stay tuned…
No comments:
Post a Comment