Staying at Le Méridien, convenient as nearby the conference site, and quite comfortable. Some of the side meetings I had to attend took place in the Hôtel Métropole, still in the heart of the city; known as the “old dame” of hotels in Brussels…”old” is the operative word there, if I have to go by the comments of colleagues who chose to stay there…
Nothing exceptional about restaurants that I had not sampled before – “L’ Idiot du Village”, “Aux Armes de Bruxelles”, etc. Tried “La Roue d’Or” for lunch, and “Le Cap” for dinner, at the suggestion of the concierge. All good, but nothing as I say exceptional. Except perhaps for L’ Idiot du Village, always as original with its cuisine.
Visits were left to Cynthia who visited the Magritte Museum and went to Antwerp as well. Below her “compte rendu” of the visit to the museum she did there: “According to The Economist (12 May 2011) and the FT lying about our room in Brussels, the museum to visit was in Antwerp. From its exterior MAS, which stands for Museum aan de Stroom (museum by the river), doesn’t look like much; red sandstone boxes stacked on top of each other are intended to resemble the landscape in which the museum resides – Antwerp’s old dockyards, now enjoying a renaissance with the this newest edition to the landscape.
“What’s exciting about this museum is how the ten stacked-up boxes are connected by escalators that give onto floor-to-ceiling walls of undulating glass on each floor which offers a different panorama of the city and its river.
“According to the literature, MAS holds about 470,000 objects. Most of it is kept in storage. The museum makes a feature of this with the first visitors’ gallery called “Visible Store”. Here, the depot contains about 180,000 items. There are rows of pull-out racks for flat works; a central display celebrates early donors; vitrines show examples of gifts that range from fossils to finely engraved caskets. You come away appreciating the work of an archivist!
“You also become aware that these objects make up the stories that unfold as you move through the collection. Themes such as “Metropolis”, “Power”, “Life and Death” and Antwerp’s long history as a major international port are made possible because of objects have been collected and studied. The latter exhibition - “World Port” - tells the tale of Antwerp from the Middle Ages on. A central table supports a flotilla of model ships. There are Chinese junks, Dutch clippers, early steamers and passenger liners.
“All that viewing, and reading and contemplation worked up an appetite, and the ground-floor very trendy café served a refreshing cava and generous ceasar salad finished off with the perfect cappuccino. I returned to Brussels without stopping in one diamond store…”
Bruxelles, June 8, 2011
