Venice. Things to do .

BIENNALE.

I ordered a taxi and told the girl at the desk of my problems with taxis and she assured me this one would be there. I had to catch a bus that would take an hour to get to the airport for the cheap flights so I couldn’t be late. It was another hotel with no one in attendance at night and I waited patiently out in the street for fifteen minutes, panicked, rang an Uber and then out of the blue, the girl at the desk arrived at 6.45 am in the morning, worried that about my taxi. She called another one and within minutes, they had arrived. I am so lucky and so touched by the kindness of people.

It’s been cold here, I’ve worn jumpers and coats and I arrive in Venice to 26 degrees. I am boiling and have one dress with long sleeves in my suitcase. That will have to get me through. I’m meeting a girl whom I met In Sicily three years ago whilst doing a language course. We kept in touch especially through the pandemic when she was as worried as I was, or more so. She lives in New York and she remembers the sirens going throughout the nights and the refrigerated morgue trucks parked everywhere. We bond over anxiety and also she’s a fantastic photographer.

I meet her in the Cannaregio area of Venice where there are great cicchetti bars and it’s a away from the tourist places. We had beautiful little cichetti and talked and talked by the canal. Having a cichetti session is one of the best things to do in Venice. Then we walked and found the Biennale locations accidentally. One in an abandoned art school, full of canvases painted by kids around the world. Then another in a beautiful old church with a wooden roof painted with stars on a blue background. This was about touch and how people perceive it. I’m not much of a person for touch so it resonated. It was stunning, with drooping strings and coloured cushions to sit and watch the video.

Then we went for dinner on the other side of the island, overlooking the Island of the dead. Looking up, we saw a full moon rising, coral coloured, striped blue with cloud. A stunning evening and an eerie long walk back to my hotel but with a moon guiding me.

Next morning, we met at Florians for an expensive coffee and to admire the beauty of the place and I noticed they're putting up the wooden walkways, they must be expecting a high tide, the acqua alta. Ps Go early to avoid the crowds, it's one of the best things to do in Venice.

What to do in Venice for a day - go to Florians.

And then another walk through back streets on the other side of the Grand Canal, stopping for a Montenegro liqueur because, at 11 am in the morning that’s what the Italians were doing. I loved way this old cafe, La Rivista, has kept the art deco look with the new signs on the toilet!

No Venice day trip without just wandering the back streets.

After that we found more biennale sights, an Anglican church that had had a service that morning we are told. This one strangely had tarot cards on huge aluminium panels, shined to look like glass with paintings of old masters for each of the cards. Then we were told to choose a jigsaw panel at the entrance and it would light up a card for us in the church and when we stood in front of it, the meaning for us would be projected onto the wall. Which it did.

Then another fascinating exhibition by a Korean artist in an old palazzo on the Grand Canal. He had made tiny triangular boxes out of mulberry bark with Korean writing on them and created three dimensional sculptures throughout the palace. We were blown away by this one. Hundreds of people must have been involved. And the palaces where the exhibitions took place are incredible.

I hadn’t been on this side of Venice for maybe thirty years and it made me realise the huge scale of this city. We take photo after photo of washing on lines and reflections. My friend is a photographer also, we are always stopping but with different views in our lens.

That evening we went back to my favourite quieter area of the Cannereggio and I had a Cynar (artichoke liquor, good for the digestion of course) spritz and Fritto Misto as the moon arose in a ghostly haze behind the buildings until it was over the canal, shining a wiggle of light onto the water.

Things to do in Venice - eat the fritto misto if you're a fish fan.

My friend left the next morning and I had a few hours before my bus. Across the road from my hotel, I discovered a museum and shop of beadwork. It was incredible. There were pieces dating back to the early 1800’s when it was a career for women.

Having purchased a lobster brooch for the daughter (have I mentioned she’s a lobster fanatic?), I head across the bridge near the station and discover another part of Venice that I’ve never been too. I have a stand up coffee with the locals and just take in Venetian life.

When I leave I take photos of well dressed Venetians, (a world apart from the badly dressed tourists) and end up at the Rialto, the vegetable and seafood market where I buy myself a floral-like bunch of mixed chillies and photograph beautiful vegetable displays. It’s also mushroom season, there are boxes full and tiny coloured autumnal gourds.

I breakfast on a couple of cicchetti - a truffle ricotta one and gorgonzola and anchovy.

Then it's back across the bridge and heading towards home with a few more photos on the way.

Where to stay in Venice.

I stayed at the Hotel Orsaria via Booking.com which is close to the station. Clean and neat with breakfast included.

BRUSSELS - What to do in Brussels in two days.

The Pissing statue and mussels.

Leaving Antwerp, I had another issue with taxis. What is it with me and taxis? I ordered one, they promised me it would turn up. It didn’t. It’s one of those hotels with no one onsite so I texted the woman and she rang the taxi and he’d gone to another hotel. She ordered another but I had a train to catch. Not long after that exchange, a glamorous BMW turned up and the owner said: “I’m going to take you.” just as I was about to start walking (having added extra time in case this exact scenario might happen as you do as an anxious traveller). The car had buttons on it in the form of fake diamonds! Truly, I seem to be always looked after in these circumstances.

I arrive to the beautiful Antwerp station and am on time for the train. Then a taxi ride and I’m at my Art Deco hotel which unfortunately is having work done on the front so I can’t see the beauty of it that the owner assures me is there.

Then I’m off to the main square to find what I can do in the two days I'm here. I walk down a long street without cars that houses all the department stores and the crowds are unbelievable. Such a diverse group of migrants.

Coming around the corner and seeing it, I am blown away. I have read that it is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and I have to agree. It’s stunning. Later I find out it was originally built from the 11th to the 17th century but was burnt down in 1695 by French troops and then rebuilt. Its Baroque facades with gold highlights glint in the afternoon light.

I find a restaurant, Le Roy D'espagne built in 1697, originally the baker's guild headquarters and it still has a statue of St Aubert, patron saint of bakers over the entrance. It's been a cafe since 1952. It has such an interesting interior. I have the endive gratin. I think of endives as lettuce but I think this is more like steamed witlof, wrapped in ham on a base of mashed potatoes and covered in cheese. The waiter, who whispers to me that he’s French, (as if that’s a crime here) has travelled the world on cruise ships and has settled here. He tells me he loves endive served raw with gorgonzola, walnuts and vinaigrette.

Things to do in Brussels

Then I become a tourist (which of course is what I am, although tourists never like to think they are) and go to the Museum which originally was the Bread House building. It’s beautiful inside with amazing tapestries, wooden 3D religious scenes, beautiful ceramics and porcelain and leadlight. It also has the dubious honour of housing the original ‘Little Pissing Man’, a 55.5 cm sculpture from the 15th century. The statue has been stolen or damaged so many times that the last remaining one is in the Museum. The figure is regularly dressed up and has around a thousand different costumes from around the world. There are statues of it in all the souvenir shops and they have added more to the town in various locations that you can get a map for, I think I'll pass.

What do do in Brussels

Then I’m off to find the oldest shopping arcade in Europe, the Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert dating back to 1847. It’s huge and beautiful and full of chocolate shops! Here there's a famous shop, Maison Dandoy that serves waffles which are a big thing here. The Brussels waffle is light, soft with a crispy exterior, the Liege waffle is rounded with more sugar. I tried both but the Brussels one is for me, the best.

What to do in Brussels

After booking into my room at three, I venture out in search of dinner. When I was out in the middle of the day/early afternoon, the place looked empty. A friend told me that Brussels was a small Paris, it certainly didn’t look like that until around six that evening. Restaurants spilled out onto the streets, bars were everywhere. After checking out different restaurants I ended up at Chez Leon, a restaurant since 1893 and there I had a memorable meal of mussels with different toppings and topped with cheese! The top half of the shell removed, there was a tomato sauce or herb, butter and garlic and other varieties, covered with grilled cheese. It was amazing. The only issue was that an older man sat down at the table next to me and said hello, recognised my Australian accent and then never stopped talking as he’d been in Australia in the eighties selling Swift banking products and he was full of stories.

He was also eating eel in a green sauce which he insisted I try and...it wasn’t bad, just tasted like fish. He told me he used to be able to do an Aussie accent but had forgotten and that his wife had died due to using some sort of youth enhancing technique that destroyed her kidneys so much so that she had to have a transplant but didn’t live that much longer after that. He said twenty other women had the same procedure and there was a class action against the Doctor. As interesting as he was (he also said he was a investigative journalist and had solved a few political issue), I was glad to escape but he did tell me that I had to try the cherry beer here which was a good pointer.

So the next day, I went for a walk up to Place Royale and looked at the beautiful art nouveau buildings and then saw a building with windows covered with surrealist art by an interesting artist, Magritte. And so I ended up seeing floor after floor of his fascinating art.

What to do in Brussels

That night I worried that the old guy would visit his favourite restaurant so I looked for others but I really wanted to quietly enjoy the mussels again. I snuck in and looked around but he wasn’t there. They took me and another solo female upstairs to a long bar table where during the next half an hour, they bought another few solo females! I started chatting and we all had a laugh. We told our various stories. One woman was coming to live here as she worked for the UN; another woman from South Korea who had a vegan patisserie shop and travelled when she could to try different foods; another woman from Romania who was on a business trip; another from Turkey also on business. Most of us had the mussels and we quietly got into them until a single male from LA was directed to our bench! His grandmother had made him promise on her dying bed that he would visit his German relatives that she hadn’t seen since she moved to America before the war. He was having a wonderful time and volunteered to take our photo. We all exchanged instagram names and when I was talking to the Romanian woman, whilst she was looking at her phone, there was a photo of a baby on the screen and I asked her about it. Sadly she had trouble falling pregnant and finally did only to find out both her and her husband had a gene that would cause early death to a child they might have and their little one only lived briefly. Now they were in the last stages of adopting from Romania. Everyone has heartache in their lives.

Next day I did the art gallery which went down five floors, the last being early twentieth century which was so wonderful.

Went for a cherry beer and some lunch interesting bar called Chateau Moderne. Stunning architecture.

What to do in Brussels

Later that day, I found another lovely old bar and had a Negroni.

Then I ate in the Grand Place at a restaurant underground, I had rabbit in a creamy beer sauce which melted in your mouth. They certainly love their beer here.

You can do a lot in Brussels in two days, it's an interesting city and I could have stayed longer.

Wandering back home, I went to a chocolate shop for an ice cream which they dipped in chocolate and you could have different sprinkles of freeze dried raspberries, or candied nuts, I chose the latter and then went to pay and she said it was free as it was a summer specialty and they were just using up the last of the ice creams.

When I arrived home, my little hotel’s small bar was open with a few people so I asked for a special drink of the region and the lovely girl at the desk made me a blackberry (cassis) liquor and white wine drink which was delicious. My last night in Brussels…perfect.

Ps. If you ever get to Brussels, go to Marys chocolate shop, it’s one of the oldest and has beautiful boxed chocolates with a design from the twenties. A must.

ANTWERP - best things to see.

City of beer cafes.

I’m having issues with taxis. I ordered one to take me to a bus stop out of town. It didn’t arrive, they said they’d send another one, it didn’t arrive. Time was running out. In the end I tried Uber and within minutes, a very touchy feely older taxi driver arrived. I asked him if he thought I’d make it to the bus and he assured me he knew a quick route as today there was a marathon on. He patted me on the arm and told me not to worry. I worried. Meantime, I booked onto another bus that went an hour later. He took off at speed and we were there in time to catch the first bus. He patted me on the shoulder and told me I shouldn’t worry so much. A message for the day. In fact, I managed to get the first bus and found out that you could cancel the other one within an hour of leaving and get a refund!

And so off to Antwerp I went. The bus stopped on the outskirts and so another Uber driver delivered me to my lovely hotel. Beautifully renovated and colourful! It was an old coach Inn.

I walk around the corner and there is the square in all it’s glory. So many things to see here. Beautiful tall thin buildings glinting light off their many windows. There’s a craft and food market in town and I have the chips with mayonnaise that is the thing to try here and because the guy is cutting the chips and cooking them on the spot. So good.

Grote Markt

I did some research and there are over 140 Madonna statues on the corners of the buildings. I keep looking up and there they are.

Madonnas of Antwerp.

Later, near my hotel, I discover Elfde Gebod, an amazing restaurant. I go in for a Cider and I’m stunned. Evidently it was once an Inn for priests as The Cathedral of Our Lady is across the road and on the top floor was a brothel - of course it was. Those were the days. It dates back to the 1400’s. It’s now filled with religious ephemera and statues and paintings from when it was an artists commune. I book for dinner and have the best mussels with a lemongrass and chilli sauce. This is definitely a thing to see here.

Elfde gebod

The next day I’m off to search of more Madonnas on street corners and look into beautiful old renovated buildings.

I have lunch at a vegan buffet and wander for an hour to find the art nouveau house with a boat balcony commissioned by a sea Captain. It’s stunning, have gone way past my 10,000 steps.

"The Boat" Antwerp

On the way back I find a bookshop about Belgium cafe culture from a woman I follow on Instagram, @Regula Ysewijn. In it is a beer cafe, Cafe the Cat and so I walk again to find it.

When I do,I feel like I have stepped out of time. I’m in the thirties. I go inside and a skinny guy with hardly any front teeth greets me and suggests a beer. He goes out with one himself to sit with a girl all dressed in purple with pink hair who’s drinking a Bloody Mary. I’m drinking an Antwerp beer called Seef with a retro label and the glass matches it (I don’t like beer but needs must) which adds to the atmosphere. Old music is playing and I linger, imagining what it must have been like here in the twenties when it was born. I ask him how he survived in the pandemic and he said the government helped places like his survive.

cafe the cat antwerp

I walk down to the riverside, there’s a bronze cut out that you can look through to see the castle, Het Steen, dating back to 1200 which is beautiful. Evidently it was the gateway to the main castle that they demolished in the 1900's. How could they! But I love how they’ve built modern up close to the old here without losing the design elements of the buildings. That night I ate Vietnamese as you do in Belgium.

Het Steen

Next day I go to a district of beautiful art deco buildings with stunning mosaics and then to one of the most beautiful railway stations in Europe or so I’m told. It was so damaged during the last war that they thought it would have to be pulled down but after many years, it’s restored and it really is stunning. The work that was put into railway stations in the early 1900’s is amazing. Next to it is the zoo but I'm too tired to go in.

Antwerp Central Railway

I walk back through the old town and pass a beautiful shopping centre, Stadsfeestzaal, which is stunning. I can't resist a cupcake shop and love what's written on the serviette. Goals.

Stadsfeestzaal

I go for a cider at another old beer bar and am intrigued by all the old ads and the beautiful blonde who is running it who’s outside with a customer, having a smoke and eventually realises that there’s a few people at the counter wanting to pay. No one seems concerned. They seem very relaxed here.

That night I return to the first restaurant and sit amongst the saints. Saint Paul, the statue next to me and my companion for the evening, has his toenails painted red, very fashionable. I have the rabbit with prunes and a beer creme brulee which was weirdly good.

And then one last walk through the town, looking at the beautiful lace shops, the many and varied beer shops and back to the hotel.

And that’s a wrap on Antwerp even though I haven’t seen anywhere near what it has to offer in three days.