Fighting the Cobbles - My trip to Belgium in 2018, Part 19 - Leaving Brussels (3)

This blog continues the previous Part 18,
https://gerdiwanninger.blogspot.com/2018/08/fighting-cobbles-my-trip-to-belgium-in_31.html

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

     

   I slowly walked through the Triumphal Arch. So close I could have a good look and could not help but to admire the details and work going into the building during these 25 years (!) until completion. I took some photos in the shadow of it and tried to cool down from the burning sun.

   Right after the Arch there is a building housing the Military Museum on the left while the right building houses the Autoworld Brussels. Actually it is not only a museum but also a venue for conventions, events and meetings. The museum displays over 250 vehicles from different time periods and different countries. The museum was inspired by King Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909). One area highlights the Belgian connection to the automobiles.

   All original Belgium car manufacturers like 'Imperia Automobiles' or 'Minerva' closed their doors long time ago but In Belgium there is still an Audi manufacturing plant in Vorst, south-west of Brussels. Volvo Car Ghent is located in the port district of Ghent and Volvo Trucks, though no more affiliated to the car manufacturer, are still produced there. All other automobile assembly plants from the big manufacturers like Renault and Opel have been closed in Belgium mostly due to European overproduction and cost cutting measures of these car manufacturers.

   Near the entrance I took some pictures and moved though the main door and looked inside. It looked all bright in the historical building, more like a clinic than a museum.

Entrance to the Autoworld Brussels (汽車世界)

   With the Autoworld the green oasis of the 'Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary' or 'Parc du Cinquantenaire' (French) came to an end and after a short walk I passed a fountain and the last trees. A fence made of wrought iron with an open gate marked the end of the park! 

   I arrived on the Avenue de Tervueren (French) or Tervurenlaan (Dutch), a major thoroughfare in Brussels. It is a continuation of the Rue de la Loi (Wetstraat) and goes underground below the whole park.

   I pulled my sports bag to the right side of the road and shared my path with some bike riders. Here the building looked very clean, mostly white with some flowers decorating the entrances or the front yards. I also noticed many houses showing crests of mainly African countries, showing embassies. One of the last buildings was the Embassy of Uganda. I noticed it because the tired flag hanging on the pole looks like two Belgian Flags stitched together in an horizontal way. But even this building had no security, on the contrary it looked very empty, without furniture...

Embassy of Uganda

   When the road become downhill there were no more houses, everything became green and natural. I ran into a group of young people trying to hitchhike by stopping cars. It might work when you are alone but four extra passengers in a car sounds too good to be true! 

   Anyway, I passed them with my luggage pulling behind me and discovered some lakes on the right side marking the district of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (French) or Sint-Pieters-Woluwe (Dutch) or more exactly the extensive 'natural' Woluwe Park. It has many lakes with birds and 170 tree species. Before 1868 this area consisted of agricultural terrains with humid grounds and a forest area of more than 15 hectares owned by the Civil Hospices of Brussels. The park was completed in 1906 and contained rare species of trees like the Japanese sophora, the Chinese cedrela etc. 

   I liked the solitude and stopped several times to take some pictures of 'wildlife' like ducks and swans but more  of the flowers and trees. I already left the city of Brussels and had the first time a sense of 'freedom'. I just leaned my luggage on a tree and ran around like an excited 10 year old; I felt so happy to be alone with nature that I did not give much thoughts on how I might look like...

   But now, as I write this, a Bible verse comes into my mind:

"The Little Children and Jesus

   13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
   14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. (Matthew 19)”

Green (and some white) Impressions beside the Road…

   As the saying goes "after every downhill follows an uphill". Houses emerged on both sides of the roads and without the trees it would get very hot indeed. Unfortunately the Belgians are a very considerate human race and not only beside the road but between the road was a very wide bike and pedestrian path which let me, despite a long but not very steep hill, very comfortable haul my luggage. Occasionally I saw trams passing me but I enjoyed my walk in the fresh and natural air under the shadowy trees...

(to be continued@
https://gerdiwanninger.blogspot.com/2018/09/fighting-cobbles-my-trip-to-belgium-in_5.html)

Disclaimer: I traveled Belgium by myself, I am not sponsored by anyone. Interested subscribers and/or followers in traveling an in this small but beautiful country are more than welcome! If not convenient to subscribe on Blogger.com, I've started my own homepage @ https://gerhardwanninger.wixsite.com/travel

Fighting the Cobbles - My trip to Belgium in 2018, Part 18 - Leaving Brussels (2)

This blog continues the previous Part 17,
https://gerdiwanninger.blogspot.com/2018/08/fighting-cobbles-my-trip-to-belgium-in_23.html

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

     

   After the Schuman roundabout I came to another green oasis in Brussels, the 'Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary' or the 'Parc du Cinquantenaire' (French) or 'Jubilee Park' (Dutch). This was quite a contrast to the noisy and busy roads and the buildings made of concrete.

   This large park is 30 hectares and in the easternmost part of the European Quarter. Originally this area was part of the military exercise ground outside of the center, the 'Linthout' plains. For the National Exhibition of 1880, the plain was developed into an exhibition center. The original pavilions were replaced with triumphal arcades in 1904. One glass-constructed Bordiau hall remained from the 1880 structures.

   I turned left and walked under high trees under the protective sun. During noon there were some visitors enjoying lunch in the garden, I took some pictures of the green trees and some people reading books or busy with their smart-phones.

   After a while I stepped out of the shadows of the trees, not far away from the above mentioned Bordiau Hall. Immediately when As soon as I left the shadows of the trees I immediately realized how comfortable it was. Within these few minutes the sun become so strong that it seemed like walking in an oven! 

   Most countries would prepare flowers for the visitors during the holiday season, but there were not many to see. Therefore I would not call it a garden but rather a grassland!

   

   But when I looked ahead I could not oversee the Triumphal Arch or Arcade du Cinquantenaire (French) which was planned for the exhibition of 1880 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the independence of Belgium from the Netherlands. But only the bases of the columns were completed in time, for the exhibition the rest was constructed from wooden panels. The following years the completion of the monument was a continuous battle between King Leopold II and the Belgian government which did not want to spend the big amount of money required to complete it. I do not know if these constant battles between the King and the Belgians let Leopold II refer to his own nation as "petit pays, petites gens" (small country, mall-minded people).

   Facing the Arch there is there are the Military Museum on the left and the Art & History Museums on the right which looks like a monumental continuous building from afar.

- Military Museum:

Already at the exhibition of 1910 a section of military history was presented to the public. Given the enthusiasm of the population the authorities established a museum of the army at a time of extreme tensions which lead to the First World War. The museum collection was dominated by approx. 900 pieces collected by the officer Louis Leconte following the Great War.

- Art & History Museums:

The museum consists of several parts which include artifacts from the prehistoric Merovingian period (751 AD) and a collection from the antiquity of the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome.  and Rome. Non-European civilizations such as China, Japan, Korea, pre-Columbian America and the Islamic world are also on display.

   The original architect of the Triumphal Arch was the Belgian Gideon Bordiau who spent close to 20 years on the project and died in 1904. King Leopold chose the French architect Charles Girault who changed the original single arch into a triple arch which was completed in 1905 just in Time for the 75th anniversary of the Belgian independence. There is a Quadriga (chariot drawn by four horses) on the top of the Arch with four figures representing four different parts of Belgium created by four different artists.

Quadriga on the Triumphal Arch

(to be continued @
https://gerdiwanninger.blogspot.com/2018/09/fighting-cobbles-my-trip-to-belgium-in.html)

Disclaimer: I traveled Belgium by myself, I am not sponsored by anyone. Interested subscribers and/or followers in traveling an in this small but beautiful country are more than welcome! If not convenient to subscribe on Blogger.com, I've started my own homepage @ https://gerhardwanninger.wixsite.com/travel