Saint Paddy’s Day in Belgium?!

Saturday march 17


Well Ireland was a little too far for us to travel for a day trip==and besides, from what I hear it is a saintly celebration there, not the green beer fest with blinking shamrock necklaces that it is in the US! That being said we did wear our green shirts today, just to represent a bit!
We headed out around 8am, thanks to an early rise by the kids, and in spite of putting the wrong street into our nav. system (groen pl. was not plaat! it was pleiss!) we were in the old part of the city centre by 10am.
We found free parking along the river, much to our amazement, and were soon at the Kathedral of Our Lady. In the tenth century a small chapel in honour of the Virgin was already situated where the present Cathedral of our Lady is located. After the establishment of the parish in 1124(!), the chapel was enlarged into a Romanesque church. This is where in between 1350 and 1520, the largest Gothic church in the low country was constructed, originally with five aisles and later with seven. At the time of the establishment of the Diocese of Antwerp in 1559, Our Lady’s church was elevated to the status of cathedral. Over the course of history it had a fire in 1533,was plundered and damaged in 1566 and 1581, was confiscated by French revolutionaries in 1794, and more! At the end of the twentieth century a programe of scientific restoration was started and continues to the present. In the Cathedral there are no less than 4 works by Peter Paul Rubens, the best known and most versatile Antwerp Baroque painter. Three paintings from the 17th century were made by Rubens specifically for this Cathedral; a fourth was acquired by the Cathedral after the French occupation. Every surface in the church was beautiful, from the giant carved pulpit done in a naturalistic Brogue style with carvings that represent the dissemination of the faith to the four continents, to the tabernacle in the late Rococo style that takes the shape of the Ark of the Covenant is decorated all round with the prefiguration of the Eucharist, executed in light relief. This piece continues to be displayed on the altar of the Guild of the Most Holy Sacrament, for which it was originally made in 1710. The history and beauty was stunning.
We walked back to the car and ate our picnic there because it was a bit chilly. Restored to full energy we headed up to the 13th century Steen Castle. It is really cool looking, but you can’t go inside L
We enjoying climbing around the outside and learned that it was the sight of a fierce stand by the Canadian, Polish and other Allied troops in WW11. They held off the Nazis for 3 weeks and allowed the river to remain open, and when a supply ship finally came in, the Army staged the liberation of the Netherlands from there.
We walked all along the old city streets, cobblestone and curvy, and took in all the sights and sounds. The smells of Belgian waffles drove us right to a waffle stand, and Molly chose a Belgian chocolate ice-cream cone, and the other 2 got traditional waffles topped with melted Belgian chocolate…oh my gosh, were they happy!
Jerry decided to wait til we got home to enjoy his Belgian beer, which he did while we caught up on the NCAA scores and updated our pools. I had a perfect Big East bracket and I know Dad is very proud of me!