Mechelen Easter weekend. The weather forecast isn’t very promising, but they’ve got loads of lovely beer in Belgium, so we figured that the worst case scenario would be that we’d spend the weekend in a bar. And that doesn’t seem too daunting a worst case scenario to me.As it turned out, the worst bit of the weekend was getting across the Channel. A train had broken down in the Channel Tunnel, which delayed us (and several thousand other people) for over three hours. The Eurotunnel terminal was so packed that we had to queue for over an hour-and-a-half just to get a Burger King.We finally got to Mechelen at 00:33 on Saturday morning, three minutes after the hotel bar closed. Doh!
Margaret of Austria Considering the dismal weather forecast, the day has got off to a super start. Here are two of Mechelen's most famous landmarks - the statue of Margaret of Austria in the Grote Markt and St. Rumbold’s Tower. It’s interesting that they only appear to have cleaned the bottom half of the tower.It’s also interesting that St. Rumbold’s Tower conforms to the almost universal Benelux scenario of planning a much taller tower (167 metres), but then running out of money and having to stop when they were only half way up (97 metres in this case).
St. Rumbold’s Tower Judith having a think about where to go next. Inside St. Rumbold’s Cathedral perhaps?
St. Rumbold’s Cathedral Inside the cathedral. Fairly standard cathedral type stuff.
Window One of the stained glass windows in St. Rumbold’s Cathedral.
Saturday Market The Saturday market in the Grote Markt. As far as I could work out, despite its picturesque looks, Mechelen appears to be largely bereft of tourists. There aren’t many hotels and there were only four chocolate shops listed in the tourist guide. All of which gives it a certain appeal that’s missing from the overtly tourist-oriented Bruges.
Easter Egg Tree They think of absolutely everything in Belgium. A tree covered in Easter Eggs in front of the Town Hall. Awesome.
Saturday Market The Saturday market on Ijzerenleen.
Church of St. Peter and Paul In the Veemarkt.
Palace of Margaret of Austria
Grote Markt Street cafe culture in the Grote Markt, even in March. Maybe there’s hope for the UK street cafe culture after all.
Mariette Teugels Gallery Mariette Teugels was a sculptor apparently. And now she’s got a gallery named after her. And if you’re looking at this at work, you’re probably unemployed now.
Leffe Belgian Fosters. Except it's not rubbish. Having spent the afternoon walking about, it’s time to stock up on all of the major food groups.
Gouden Carolus A visit to the Het Anker brewery, where they’ve been making beer since 1433. Gouden Carolus (Golden Charles) is “the pride of Mechelen” and is named after a coin minted during the reign of Charles V.
Margriet Another product of Het Anker. Note the lightening speed with which Judith strikes the unguarded peanuts.
Duvel Thinking about it, maybe Duvel is more like Belgian Fosters than Leffe? I think Leffe might be more of a London Pride.
St. Rumbold’s Tower Spent so long enjoying the beer, it’s gone dark outside.
Grote Markt Looks like I’ve overcooked the exposure a bit there. Doh! Still, it’s created quite a nice effect. Considering how much practice I get, I’ve managed to completely fluff pretty much every night time photo I took. Shabby.
Town Hall Apart from this one.
Grote Markt at Sunrise Despite last night’s lovely beer, I made the effort to get up dead early on Sunday morning to go out and take some photos. And boy was it cold. The white patches in the foreground are the remnants of last night’s snow. Brrr.
Boats on the Dule Also early on Sunday morning.
Ijzerenleen It turns out that on Easter Sunday none of the shops open (apart from the bakers for some reason). Which is the main reason that I haven’t brought any lovely Belgian chocolates back with me.
Grote Markt Judith in the Grote Markt. It’s looking a lot quieter on Sunday morning than it did on Saturday. Weather’s still nice though.
St. Peter’s Cathedral, Leuven Given that we still had several hours before we needed to be in Calais for the train home, we thought we’d nip over to Leuven, since Tom regularly tells me what a nice place it is. And he’s not wrong. It’s fairly similar to Mechelen, although it’s a much bigger place. More of a city than a town. This is St Peter’s Cathedral. Because it was Easter Sunday, they were doing something inside that meant I couldn’t go in and take any photos.
Old Market Square, Leuven Belgian towns have certainly managed to apply a consistent look-and-feel to their market squares.
Town Hall, Leuven I didn’t take any photos of the Town Hall from the Great Market Square, as that side of the building was in shade and wasn’t lending itself to being photographed at all.
Great Market Square, Leuven Buildings in the Great Market Square.After having a bit more of a wander around, we drove to Oostende for a bite to eat in the Chicken and Bread shop, then headed for Calais. Just as well we left ourselves plenty of time as we had to drive through a blizzard for 30 miles, which was a bit more intense than I usually like my driving to be. Unfortunately the camera was in the boot, so we didn’t manage to get any photos of it.I really must make the effort not to leave it so long before going back to Belgium again. If you’re in the area, I can highly recommend Mechelen for a short stay or stopover.