June 2, 2017
Brussels: Art Nouveau
Another dry and sunny day! What luck we were are having in proverbial rainy Flanders! We started the day with a leisurely breakfast - a breakfast buffet included in the price of the hotel - reading the news and emails and catching up in general. Telling ourselves we had drunk enough coffee and it was time to get away from the breakfast table, we then focused on planning the activities for the day.
You can't see everything, even if you do stay five days, but we certainly didn't want to miss the Art Nouveau here. We set as destination for the day some of the Art Nouveau buildings, all built between 1893 and 1914, which are dotted thoughout the city. We had a pamphlet with a suggested walking tour covering some of the most outstanding examples and just had to work out which bus, tram or subway would get us there. For some general information on Art Nouveau I found this article good.
It was exciting to walk the streets looking for and discovering the houses listed in our walking tour pamphlet, sort of like an oversized geocaching. Doing the buidings justice with my camera was a challenge and I wasn't too happy with the results. Architecture photography isn't easy but I got some shots to help record what we saw. Some of the buildings are in a bad state of repair. Sadly it is easier and less costly to tear them down and build a modern building than to restore these gems. For a while Art Nouveau was out of style and many buildings were demolished before the style was rehabilitated in the art world, sometime in the 60's.
Here is a small sample, some overall views, some details, to give you an idea.
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It was a good if tiring day. Unfortunately, in the evening I saw that my rash was getting worse. I still had to take the prescribed antibiotic one more day and was hoping the rash would subside when the treatment was finished. I briefly considered seeing a doctor immediately but it was Friday afternoon, a weekend coming up, and I decided to wait until Monday and see if it might not get better by itself.
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3 years ago