*** I thought I posted this a while ago, but apparently I didnt. This was around mid June when Dad and I headed back to England for the second time ***
Alrighty, so Dad and I are on another adventure back over to England. When we were in Ypres, Dad and I took a massive amount of photos..sadly, Dads SD Card crapped out on him and he lost every single picture he took. Needless to say, he was quite the unhappy camper (can’t blame the guy!) and he wanted to go back another time and take the pics again. Well, today was that day.
Alrighty, so Dad and I are on another adventure back over to England. When we were in Ypres, Dad and I took a massive amount of photos..sadly, Dads SD Card crapped out on him and he lost every single picture he took. Needless to say, he was quite the unhappy camper (can’t blame the guy!) and he wanted to go back another time and take the pics again. Well, today was that day.
We went back over to Cloth Hall so we could get his picture fix..luckily the weather behaved long enough so he could get some decent shots. ALL DAY..the weather has been bi-polar. One minute it’s gorgeous, the next it’s raining cats and dogs…then cue the sun and humidity…then it gets cold and monsoons again. Good stuff! After exterior pics were taken, we made our way into the actual Fields of Flanders Museum and checked out a lot of the exhibits again. I only took a few shots since the last time we were there, I managed to get a lot but some tourists were getting in the way (how dare they!). It was pretty quick and painless since Dad knew exactly what he was wanting to take pictures of..just in case, I took the same pics JUST IN CASE his SD Card decided to dump everything again. I don’t want a repeat melt-down like last time! It was ugly…
Made our way over to the gift shop and I ended up getting a cute umbrella (I stupidly forgot to bring mine from home), so I officially have a Red Poppy umbrella. It’s quite cute, actually. I also picked up two Red Poppy coasters as well as a water color painting that I’ll frame and put in my office. Every time I look at it, it’ll remind me of the trip :) From there, we dropped our goodies off in the truck and grabbed a bite to eat at one of the local cafes (it was awesome), but we were kinda quick to get out of there since the people who sad directly next to us had on an obscene amount of perfume / cologne on. It was giving Dad and myself a headache! Since we had some extra time to kill before making our way to Oostende, we did some window shopping …found a pretty interesting war style shop that was selling Trench Art. Now, what is Trench Art? It’s when someone uses the case shelling of ammo rounds (massive rounds about 45mm or more)…polishes it up and actually hammers or etches designs in the piece. Some people made vases out of them, or just decorative table pieces. Tell ya what, some of those were just AWESOME to look at! I would’ve definitely bought one if it were in a silver tone , but sadly, they were all made of copper / brass .
Once we were done window shopping, we finally headed out and made our way over to Oostende, which is only an hour away from Ypres. The last time we stayed here, we ended up at the Imperial Best Western which I don’t recommend if you’re wanting two people to a room..with separate beds. They apparently don’t do that, which sucked. If you’re there by yourself, then by all means, go for it. This time I ended up getting us a different hotel which is right next to the wharf. Loves it! It’s the Hotel du Bassin, and it’s right around the corner from Oostende’s GORGEOUS cathedral! I mean, it’s absolutely amazing! It’s actually right around the corner from my hotel room (score!).
The staff was VERY nice & so helpful. When I told them that we’ll be leaving early the next morning (before they serve breakfast), the gal at the check in desk asked if she could pack a lunch for us to take since we couldn’t have their breakfast. At first, we told them not to worry about it considering we didn’t want one of their staff members getting up extra early for the sake of 2 people, ya know? She insisted that they’ll make something..ok! Not gonna turn down food! Sure enough, next morning when we got up and were checking out, there were two lunch baggies with sandwiches, drinks, fruit and yogurt! Wow! Lots of food to take! All that stuff ended up being consumed while we were on our four hour ferry, hahaa.
Anyway…back to the Oostendes Cathedral; Dad and ventured over to it and took a lot of exterior pictures since, well, that’s what we do.
Me attempting to take pictures with Eric's tiny camera
After a lil while, I figured it’d be best to get inside considering the temp dropped and the clouds were gathering overhead…it was about to rain any minute. Sure enough, a few minutes after we were inside, it started to down pour….gave us a good reason to hang out inside longer and check out some of the stained glass throughout the building.
The care taker for the cathedral was really nice and took it as a compliment that so many people love visiting his building, especially when they were taking a lot of pictures (can ya blame them?). After a lil while, I went over to the donation area and dropped about 20 euro considering they were nice enough to let us hang out in there when we obviously weren’t praying, plus taking a lot of pictures… there were two Belgian gals in there who happened to be talking to the care taker and they started making their way to the front of the building where the sermons are held. They walked past Dad and I and the care taker asked me something in Dutch, in which I said “Speke di Engels?”, and his response was “OH! Americans! Lovely!” ..hahahaaa. The gals also spoke English, which was really nice and they started picking our brains about the States. He asked “Would you be interested in a little history lesson?”..well of course! So, he opened up the partitioner and walked us past the tomb that was in the center of the platform area to another set of stairs (I didn’t even see these from where we were earlier). When we walked up the stairs, he opened up an iron gate and started talking about the architect who build the cathedral and all the drama that happened in the process of making it. Apparently all the churches in Belgium are build facing the West, but this architect build it to the East on purpose. May not seem like a big deal, but they’re build that way specifically so light can penetrate the building and make it seem even more grand (as if they weren’t already?). I thought that was pretty interesting…so from there, he walked us into another room where there was this amazing marble statue. You would NEVER see this thing if you were just in the main part of the cathedral. It’s in a room surrounded by stained glass and carvings in the window frames..definitely something you’d have to see in person to actually appreciate it!
The care taker for the cathedral was really nice and took it as a compliment that so many people love visiting his building, especially when they were taking a lot of pictures (can ya blame them?). After a lil while, I went over to the donation area and dropped about 20 euro considering they were nice enough to let us hang out in there when we obviously weren’t praying, plus taking a lot of pictures… there were two Belgian gals in there who happened to be talking to the care taker and they started making their way to the front of the building where the sermons are held. They walked past Dad and I and the care taker asked me something in Dutch, in which I said “Speke di Engels?”, and his response was “OH! Americans! Lovely!” ..hahahaaa. The gals also spoke English, which was really nice and they started picking our brains about the States. He asked “Would you be interested in a little history lesson?”..well of course! So, he opened up the partitioner and walked us past the tomb that was in the center of the platform area to another set of stairs (I didn’t even see these from where we were earlier). When we walked up the stairs, he opened up an iron gate and started talking about the architect who build the cathedral and all the drama that happened in the process of making it. Apparently all the churches in Belgium are build facing the West, but this architect build it to the East on purpose. May not seem like a big deal, but they’re build that way specifically so light can penetrate the building and make it seem even more grand (as if they weren’t already?). I thought that was pretty interesting…so from there, he walked us into another room where there was this amazing marble statue. You would NEVER see this thing if you were just in the main part of the cathedral. It’s in a room surrounded by stained glass and carvings in the window frames..definitely something you’d have to see in person to actually appreciate it!
The glass above the statue:
The statue represents the death of Belgiums first Empress. Apparently she was very loved by her kingdom and they made this statue as a tribute to her. The Empress was only 30 something years old when she passed away from TB. The way the statue was made, the Empresses expression is relaxed, but tired and ready for the angel to take her (she was very weak, hense her body posture), she was letting her crown fall since ruling was no longer a concern for her in *this* life since she was ready to accept the crown of the afterlife that the angel was presenting to her. She was essentially letting go of material things since you can’t take them into the afterlife (while sprawled out on a fur robe to signify royal blood). The face of the woman sitting next to her looks like she is mourning for the loss of her queen ; the woman is supposed to symbolize ALL of the people.
It was all quite very educational, especially since we (essentially) had a private tour and history class ..and we managed to check out a part of the building not too many people get access to. How cool is that??
It was all quite very educational, especially since we (essentially) had a private tour and history class ..and we managed to check out a part of the building not too many people get access to. How cool is that??
