We visited two wineries yesterday – Elk Cove and Kramer Vineyards. At the first we tasted wines while looking out over the vineyard. At the second we watched birds of prey riding the air currents while searching for their dinner.
We had our lunch between the two tastings at the Horse Radish in Carlton. The food was divine – we will definitely be back. The scenery around the two wineries was not what we expected. They are in the hills surrounded by forest and small farms selling farm fresh chicken and quail eggs. The roads were scenic but also very narrow and winding. I was glad that I wasn’t the one driving.
And then it was back to the cottage to watch the sunset with a glass of wine. It never gets old.
It’s off to another wine tasting shortly, but here is my view as I write this.
Not the last day of the trip – just the last day on the Oregon coast. We had lunch at a local brewery with amazing wood fired pizza. The beer was pretty good too.
We walked along the beach in the morning and afternoon but the highlight was a campfire on the beach watching the sunset.
We let the fire burn down to embers and then doused it with water. We don’t want to be responsible for starting any fires…
Tomorrow we head inland to the Willamette valley and wine country.
What did you think I meant? We were just down the road from Newport so we had to visit Rogue Brewery where I had a Rogue Dead Guy ale. Yummy.
But the highlight of the day, other than Rogue, was walking along the beach. First thing in the morning the mist was so thick that you could barely see where you were going. It was equal parts disorienting and magical.
Walking along the beach, we kept seeing bits of evergreen trees in the sand. There must be a story there, but I have no clue what it is.
We were fascinated by the other things washed up on the beach.
There were a number of tidal pools near our hotel and I could have watched them for hours. I nearly did.
We went for a long walk along the beach in the morning, but we enjoyed it so much that we had to go for a walk in the evening. The sun was setting…
The tide was still going out, which created fascinating patterns of running water.
… and interesting reflections in the wet sand.
I’ll leave you with a picture of shells attached to the rocks – almost abstract art.
We don’t often travel in the summer because we prefer to stay home and enjoy the garden. (It’s so nice here in the summer – not so much in the winter…). But we made an exception this year and we are off to Oregon next week. This is what we are leaving behind.
I’ll try to post on the trip, as long as I don’t have too much fun wine tasting.
Sunday in Brussels was much quieter than Saturday had been, and that was a very good thing. We head to the airport tomorrow morning around 6:00 AM – they now recommend arriving four hours early for international travel, and with all the new restrictions and forms we decided it was a good idea to follow the recommendations. So we wanted to take it easy today. This first picture shows a building that is being renovated just outside our hotel. They clearly intend to preserve the facade and have built a huge iron brace to hold it in place while they reconstruct the interior.
Next we have a picture of the church on the central square – the Grand-Place, followed by an example of the type of building that surround the square.
I suspect there is an interesting story behind this statue, but I can’t imagine what it is.
This is an example of the ironwork around the Petite Sablon park. Note the hand holding the flowers.
Another unusual building near our hotel.
And a painting of the Belgian icon, Tin Tin, on the wall of a building.
I’ll close with two examples of ephemeral art. The first is an ice cream cone with two flavours arranged in the shape of a flower. The second is the sand sculpture I showed in a previous post, with a different, but related, image today.
On our second day in Brussels we headed away from the center of the city to see the botanical garden. It is a fairly small park, but wonderfully maintained with flowers, trees, and a small pond. One tree was particularly striking.
When you looked closer, the bark reminded me of lava, and looked like it was flowing down around the branches…
The leaves and seed cones looked like a prehistoric tree.
And then there were the flowers. So many flowers.
There was also a small pond with turtles sunning themselves on the rocks.
After a pleasant walk through the botanical garden we continued to the beer museum, stopping for lunch along the way. Of course, we saw plenty of stained glass and Gothic cathedrals.
As we headed back toward the center of town I captured this image of the blending of old and new. A dead tree is covered in lush green ivy. Probably a metaphor about our world today somewhere in there, but I just like the picture.
As we started out this morning we came across several gatherings that seemed to have a cultural theme, so we looked into it when we got back to the hotel. Turns out that May 21st is World Day for Cultural Diversity. And by early evening it was definitely a celebration of diversity … especially the celebration part. The streets were absolutely packed with pounding music on every street corner.
The theme was cultural diversity, but this last picture captures just how much we all have in common. Early in the afternoon we came across a Turkish celebration with music and dancing. At least the young girls were dancing and having a great time. But the young boys were not nearly as enthusiastic.
We took the train from Antwerp into Brussels on Friday and arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm. Our plans to walk to the hotel were quickly doused in cold water – well, cold rain actually, but you get my point. We grabbed a taxi which was an adventure in itself, but I’ll save that for another day. By the time we checked in and unpacked the rain had stopped and headed out for a walk through the center of Brussels to Sablon. Along the way we spotted a bit of street art – a sand sculpture. The artist was still working on it when we returned over an hour later.
In the heart of the old city we came across a “Biertempel” so of course I had to go in for a look.
Our primary objective for the afternoon was the Square du Petit Sablon. Like so many places in Brussels (in Europe, to be honest) it was within sight of a Gothic cathedral.
The inside of the square had a small, well kept garden, a fountain, and … a sculpture of two nobles looking very cheerful on their way to be executed. This happened in the 16th century and their crime was “resisting Spanish tyranny”.
Around the outside of the square are 48 bronze statues illustrating typical trades in 16th century Brussels. I’ll show two examples here: a clock-maker (because I’ve worked in techie things all my life) and the cooper (because … beer and wine…).
I’ll leave you with a picture of a snail on a holly bush in the square. I like it because it’s a great picture and because after nearly two weeks of travel we are moving about the same speed as that snail.
It was our last full day in Antwerp and the forecast was for thunderstorms. But the sky was clear when we left the hotel, so we decided against bringing our umbrellas. Perhaps not the brightest idea?
Our primary objective for the day was the Plantin-Moretus Museum about the first printing press in Antwerp and one of the most important printing houses during the enlightenment. The museum was also the first museum to be on the UNESCO World Heritage List. So this is another UNESCO site added that we have visited. The half hour walk to the museum gave me the chance to photograph more of the fascinating architecture that is everywhere in Antwerp.
One thing I did notice was a “fish” theme in the sculptures. I first noticed a fountain with a sea eagle catching a fish.
This was echoed in the sculptures on the buildings around the square.
The clouds were looking more threatening as we walked, and shortly after we entered the museum the rain started, and then the thunder. We always tend to take our time in museums, but today we were especially diligent, reading every single description as we listened to the rain and thunder. But seriously, it was fascinating walking through the old printing presses, the creaking of the floor boards almost as loud as the thunder outside. Five hundred years ago this was the cutting edge of the information technology revolution, which is exactly where I’ve spent my career. And it did indeed revolutionize society and break religion’s strangle hold on progress … at least for a while. Here are a few pictures from the courtyard.
By the time we finished our museum tour the storm had mostly passed, but we decided to have lunch at a nearby bistro just in case. And then Jan went back to the hotel and I headed off for a tour of the local Antwerp brewery – De Koninck. Unfortunately the bar was closed for a special event so I couldn’t have a proper “Monday Beer Club” meeting on a Thursday, but I did manage to sample an interesting beer that had been recommended.
Very tasty, and the name reminds me of Brew Revolution. Maybe next trip I’ll do a proper tasting…
If It Was Today... 