Thursday 13 August 2009

Red Bicycles and Window Boxes

Sonata :

It's not all beer and skittles here . It's "tidy time " Chez Sonata because I go back to work next week but yesterday I did go to Antwerp for the day .... over nine hours in trains to have seven hours there , an indication of how much I love the city .


It's a perfect size to wander in , full of Art Nouveau loveliness and slightly shabby round the edges . Bourgeois grannies and penniless art students , North Africans , nuns and optimists , gourmets and gourmands .

And full of statues , including this one in the courtyard of a health center


or this , to interest people in a restoration course


or this , in the cafe of the Art Gallery , to chastise those of us who've just had a large slice of quiche and a cup of coffee , served with a sticky little biscuit .


Full of courtyards

junk shops

window boxes

and bicycles


and random fun .

and Pain Quotidien lemon tartlets are freely available .
What's nine hours in a train or two ?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Antwerp is now on my list of places I want to visit, it looks lovely! Amazing that those sunflowers can get that big in that tiny bit of soil, spreading a little sunshine! Penny x

gemma @ loz and dinny said...

22 hour flight plus 7 hours on a train - I so want to do it - now! Such delicious images to make the feet itch and the stomach grumble.

Suse said...

Thanks for that little virtual tour! The red of those geraniums is to die for.

Tania said...

Freely available lemon tartlets you say? Those being my achilles heel, I'll be seeing how much more than nine hours on a train is the flight time...

Anonymous said...

that ghostly statue is intriguing, thanks for the photo tour

Redwoodhouse said...

Antwerp looks fabby I have never been there I will add it to my must travel to list. I love the jewelery you made, so pretty.
Also love the thought of coffee and a sticky little biscuit.ummm
Jan

FWOG. said...

What a fantastic promotion for Antwerp. Although I am not so sure the ghosty-type statues are such a good promotion for the health centre...

Cathy {tinniegirl} said...

It sounds and looks worth every minute of the journey.

minimon said...

Belgium is really great, another interesting place there to go is Bruge, the little Venice of the North, don´t miss it if you ever will go to Belgium!

Thank you so much for your comment on my blog :-)))
Sigrid