Amazing Antwerp Day 2

 Well, when we woke up on Sunday morning, both CBC and I were very pleased to realise that we had slept deeply.  The bed in the Sud D'Anvers corner flat was incredibly comfortable! Both of us were very reluctant to get up!

We made breakfast- granola, tea and juice for me then toast.  CBC had Coffee instead of tea. There were wonderful church bells ringing as we ate breakfast and sad musician that I am, discovered that my three china receptacles (I had two cups of tea there...shhh) created harmony with it so I had 10 minutes of amusedly joining in with the bells. Our apartment had birdfeeders attached to it and we delighted in the blue tits who came really close to our window landing in the tree. They didn't seem to notice us!

Once we were ready, we started walking up the main street from our apartment until we reached Nationalestraat.  We passed a T2 shop that sadly didn't open for another hour or so.  We headed through town, marvelling at the sunshine.  Our first destination was the MAS museum. Museum aan de Strom.  You can visit the terrace on the 9.5th storey for free to gain a wonderful 360 degree view of the city and port.

The building is really intriguing itself with vast curved, rippled glass panels and imported Indian red sandstone with medallions representing those who built it (I think!) . 

The museum's exhibits and galleries are mainly about Antwerp and its connection to the world but there are temporary exhibitions too. We didn't go into visit it as we wanted to get out and about though I was intrigued by the exhibition about people and a picture that represents their heritage and who they are. People of all ages were photographed with something representing their heritage. People were pictured with sports equipment,instruments, tools and all sorts.

Once we had climbed all the escalators, admiring the view from the boulevard on each floor, we reached the rooftop where we saw views all around.

Once we had climbed back down the escalators, we decided to go and seek the Naval Port Authority building which had been added to by the renowned architect Zaha Haddid in 2016.  We decided that we'd like to use the Velo hire bike scheme which, for those of you in London, is a bit like the Santander/Boris bike scheme.

I recommend this as a great way to get around Antwerp quickly  Yes,the bikes are pretty heavy and not the best bikes but they are really reasonable. You can either register by App or by internet.  

It costs 5 Euros a day, 11 euros for a week and I believe 55 Euros for a year.  How it works is, once you have paid for your time period, you type your passcode into the screen at the end of each Dock for bikes. It then tells you which number bike to take and it releases it to you. You can then use that bike for 30minutes maximum but you must return it to another dock by then.   You always enter your passcode to check it has registered your return. You must then wait 5 minutes before you can get another bike. 

This works brilliantly for short trips and really helps you to get around. You can get quite far by the bikes.

We registered and then headed out to the Naval building.  Here it is:

Once we'd taken photos, we decided to dock our bikes and then after 5 minutes, picked up a new one to return to the main part of town.

Our next destination was the Vleehuis, recommended by Ann- the history of music and musical instruments in Antwerp.  It's only open Thursday-Sunday, so this was really our only day (Sunday) that we could see it.   It cost 8Euros to enter

The museum is housed in the former Guildhall, Vlee Huis means "Meat house".  In around 1899, after another building was built to house the Meat House, the building was sold to become the place for storing the Municipal archives. It was renovated and in 1913, opened as the Museum of antiquities housing some 80,000 objects included musical instruments, ceramics, metals, architecture and iconography.  By the 1970's, the museum became more focused on musical instruments as more and more keyboard instruments were being restored and eventually, in 2006, reopened with the main focus being music, dance and sound in general with particular regard to the history of Antwerp.

The museum was quite dark inside, probably to ensure preservation of the instruments but it also makes it atmospheric.  There were some brilliant chronological display boards charting the history of music in Antwerp.

The artefacts include instruments, manuscripts, books, paintings, models, manuscripts.  In terms of what part of music history is covered, there is particular reference to Minstrels, military music, bells ringing, public concerts, dance, opera, music in the home and dance.

Here are a few exhibits I enjoyed:

Here's one of my favourite instruments, the Hurdy-Gurdy.  It is operated by means of a handle/crank on the right hand side.  When you turn it, it turns the wheel which then rubs the strings (like a bow on a violin, but bow on a wheel rather than a straight bow). You press your fingers down on a sort of button keyboard which then presses down the strings to change the pitch- a bit like you would on a violin or guitar but via buttons doing the pressing rather than your fingers touching the string.  It has various strings including the Trumpet strings (which make a rasping voice) as well as more sonorous violin-sounds.  It's a bit like a musical meat mincer! I think they are SUPER cool and I would LOVE to learn to play one but they are reaaaaaaaaally expensive!

Here's a video from Patty Gurdy, telling you about them if you are interested:

Bells are an important part of the history of music in Flanders cities and here's a great carillon featuring various sized bells. You can hear concerts of these in the Summer in Antwerp cathedral. Lots of church towers have Carillons.

You can see that one of the hall is devoted to the history of keyboard instruments.

Here's an example of one of the scores. You can open various drawers to view these closely. It's very neat and compact.

One of my favourite early instruments is the Serpent- which is apparently an early form of the tuba. It's a bass instrument and you play it by buzzing your lips and blowing into the mouthpiece at the top and changing pitch by adding fingers to the holes.

This hilarious picture pictures a Shrove Tuesday special instrument called The Bladder Fiddle. On Shrove Tuesday, the world turned topsy-turvy and normal conduct went out the window and things went a bit crazy.  This mad instrument was extremely noisy:  a rope acted as a string, a pig's bladder as the sound box,  and a serrated wooden stick acted as a bow. Bells and cymbals on top completed the cacaophony! 

Here's a sub-contra bass recorder. Yes, it is that long!

Did you realise how big some church tower bells are?  I often wonder how on earth they raised these so high up considering they are made of bronze?  Tiny towers and stairs? How did they raise them!?

Here's an early salon piano.

What a beautiful string instrument this is!

I wouldn't want to meet this one on a dark night!

Here is a beautifully ornate harp.  Nowadays, even a modest priced concert harp might cost you £20,000 or more. Plus, you need an Estate car to transport it!

CBC and I loved this exhibit piece which shows you how the piano developed in terms of pitch range over the years up until the 88 key concert grand of the Romantic era, as extended by Pleyel.

Here was an example of a military tabor drum used in the army, usually accompanied by the fife.

Here's a set of early clarinets as well as some bassoons and a flute.  Flutes didn't become metal until the  Romantic era, 1847, when Theodore Boehm introduced the metal, keyed flute at the Paris Exhibition.  The clarinet was not introduced to the orchestra until the classical era, the time of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.  It was invented around c1700.  I only discovered at my concert last weekend, that Haydn didn't include clarinets in any of his symphonies until his 99th symphony (which we performed)- that means he only used it for 5 of his 104 completed symphonies!

Downstairs in the crypt of the hall were several very interesting exhibits.

You can see a really well-explained workshop for the making of brass instruments here.

Another part of the basement included mechanical music devices like music boxes.

The best part for me was a bell foundry which shows you the different stages of creating bells! What an amazing craft. I remember Ang telling me about the sad closing of the Whitechapel bell foundry and I was really glad to see this!

Once we left the Vleehuis, we were hungry so we headed towards the square where  St Charles Borromeo church is and found a cute cafe for some lunch.  I got this delicious Smashed avocado on toast (with beautiful salad) and CBC had a salad.

On the way home, CBC and I took bikes back to the nearest Velo bike dock near the Centre for Tropial diseases and then CBC went back to the apartment and I headed to THINK TWICE on Nationalestraat...but more from that another day! 

We chilled out at the apartment for a while- I read my book and we drank tea.

For dinner, we had booked a table at the hugely popular Thai restaurant opposite our apartment.

As we were due to sit outside in their covered outdoor area, I wore a grey cashmere sweater (bought in Florence when we got engaged in 2012) along with a grey skirt I bought in Think Twice plus my brown brogues.

The Thai restaurant was really delicious- we had a wonderful platter and of course, I had my beloved Thai Green prawn curry then we headed home for a relatively early night!

Day 2 was really fun and interesting!