Paleis Het Loo

Another two-country day. We hired a car to drive from Antwerp, Belgium to Apeldoorn, Netherlands, so I could tour Paleis Het Loo and its gardens, created by King William and Queen Mary. A couple of scenes in my novel take place there.

It was a pleasant drive to the Gelderland and the forest areas where William enjoyed hunting--he purchased Het Loo for that very purpose, and and and Mary soon created the Versailles of Holland.

The front of the palace.



I started in the gardens.



My lizard Sparkle makes a friend.



Celestial globe. (Its mate, a terrestrial globe, was positioned on the opposite side of the garden.)



The ornate back door of the palace, which opens onto the gardens.



Queen Mary's Garden.



Queen Mary created a similar wych elm bower at Hampton Court Palace, but not quite as elaborate as the Het Loo one.



Inside the bower.



The figs are still coming in.



I love passion flowers. So did Queen Mary.



I was inside the palace for quite a long time doing the tour--King William's and Queen Mary's apartments, the chapel, as well as rooms reflecting later periods of the House of Orange right up to Queen Juliana's 20th century bedroom with furniture she chose herself, and the marks inside the door frame to chart her growth. Queen Beatrix and her family still use the palace, royal marriage cermonies and christenings take place in the chapel.

I saw it all!



Snacking in the car. Let it be known that I did not steal this royal fig myself. Someone who shall not be named nicked it for me, because I missed out having a proper lunch.



The drive back was less enjoyable, heavy rains and heavy traffic, especially in the ring roads outside Nijmegen and Eindhoven. But we made it back safely, in time for a late dinner--and for a second time this week we dined with jazz great Toots Thielemans! I had the Flemish Stew again (Toots's favourite) because its so very tasty.

Tomorrow will be a three-country day.

Antwerpen

We got very wet at The Hague yesterday, but today Antwerp was dry and bright.

This was a holiday (because All Saints fell on Sunday)--and on Mondays nearly all museums are closed in this part of the world. But I don't think the Diamond Museum ever closes, and that's where we began.



There were displays of historic diamonds and interesting stories connected with them, and information on the entire diamond trade, from the properties of diamonds to the mining of them and cutting and polishing and sorting and selling and marketing and jewellery-making. We watched a diamond polisher at work (the ones he was polishing were for industrial use, in oil drills.) I talked to him about old cuts and rose cuts. He said when he got into the trade there were 30-40,000 workers, now more like 300 or 400. Big, big multi-carat stones are in demand, 4 carats to 40. But 80% of all diamonds pass through Antwerp at some stage of their development.

From the museum we walked the main shopping street. In a department store I found the hand-mitt flannels/washcloths that I like so much and bought a couple to match our master bath towels.

Talk to the hand.



We're in Belgium, and that means Chocolate everywhere. We stopped in the Leonidas shop and each purchased something to lift our blood sugar levels. I chose some of the chocolate rolls below, with raspberry marzipan in the middle.



Chocolates and other sweets are works of art here. Here's a sampling from shop windows.

Chocolate marzipan hedgehog.



Autumn theme: leaves and nuts and Halloween ghosties.



Pink marzipan pigs (every shop had some variation of these.)



Fruit sweets.



This sweet dog was minding the flower shop.



A study in colours.



A study in black and white.



In the Grote Markt, sunshine on the facades.



Old-fashioned transport.



The tops of the buildings are ornate and wonderfully adorned.



St. George, after skewering the dragon.



More rooftops.



Decoration on the well across from the Cathedral.



A different view.



The cathedral dominates the skyline, and one hears the chimes regularly, they play every quarter hour. We spent hours in their vicinity so heard them ring all the changes. Several times.

Looking up.



It's difficult to fit the whole building into the frame but I did fairly well.



Some distance away from the Cathedral I found it reflected in this ballet poster.



Another view, this from the viewing bridge.



Statue on the bridge.



River Schelde.



The castle is a seafaring museum.



The building in the middle is the Vlees Huis (Meat House), which belonged to the butchers' guild. Its brickwork resembling streaky bacon.



This shop offers 260 types Belgian beer. I'm mostly interested in one type--framboise.



For dinner we ordered the traditional moules et frites (mussels and fries). One of us tried the local Antwerp few. The other had Belle Vue Framboise.

Sunday Stroll: Two Countries

On our first night in Antwerp we had dinner with a fabulous friend of ours, known to the world as bestselling novelist Tess Gerritsen. She's here to sign books and do press at the Antwerp Bookfair and in Amsterdam.

The two authors outside the Italian restaurant.



It seems crazy having a reunion on this side of the Atlantic, when we live a mere 3 hours apart. But when you're a globetrotter with globetrotting chums, your paths are bound to cross away from home sometimes.

I ordered the lobster ravioli. It tasted as delicious as it looks!



Also dining with us was a large, glossy, beautifully behaved black labrador. He and his people were seated at the table nearest us. I couldn't get a good shot of him, alas. I love that European dogs are allowed into the very best restaurants. He was better behaved than I was.

After dinner at the shop next to our hotel I picked up Belgium's version of Little Debbie snack cakes. I had my choice of any number of waffle-type goodies. This one is 2 mini-waffles pressed together with vanilla cream inside (exactly like the stuff inside Little Debbie cakes.)



This morning at the bus stop I renew my romance with Nutella spread. I broke my addition to it 2 years ago. So far I haven't fallen off the wagon....



No, not a cathedral. The Antwerp Centraal rail station.



Ditto.



We took the train to The Hague for an afternoon of research and sightseeing.

Here's the Mauritshuis (the primary art gallery) and the Binnenhof, seat of the Netherlands government.



We visited two other galleries, all within a short walk of one another, situated around the Hofvijver (the body of water pictured below.)



On the other side of the Hofvijver, we found a fish snack shop. At the walk-up counter you could order sandwiches--or filleted pickled herring.



Here's the filleting process.





I watched a man down one of these herring like a seal, he held onto the tail, and gulped it down in two bites. (The seal would've swallowed it whole, of course!)

These, I believe, are smoked dried herrings.



We decided to try the very tiny local shrimps, caught in the waters right by the city.





Within the courtyard of the Binnenhof. Sunday strollers getting wet.



Binnenhof arches. This reminds me of the many perspective paintings we saw in the three galleries we toured.



We saw all the Dutch and Flemish masters--Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Mytens, and more. And the most famous Vermeer of all, Young Girl in a Turban, better known as Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Retraced our route back to Antwerp via rail and local bus, which conveniently let us off in front of our hotel, where we dined. I had a Flemish stew and washed it down with Kriek (cherry) beer. The barman was out of my favourite Framboise (raspberry) beer. But I'll have some tomorrow, I'm sure!

Legendary jazzman Toots Thielemans was dining at the same time we were. The restaurant bears his name...I'm wondering if his meal is comped?

It seemed odd not to be in church this All Saints Day, singing saintly hymns. But we did see lots of religious art!

Thanks for stopping by...to keep strolling, head over to Aisling's blog.