MAS

Two weeks ago I went to the Museum aan de Stroom, which is located near the port area, in Antwerp. I didn't visit the museum itself, as I just went to the top floor to get the panorama view of the city. Though I have heard the museum is good, not expensive (5€ for the permanent exhibition) and you have plenty of floors (10!) full of artwork to explore. Nevertheless, if you want to do like myself, you just have to go up through the automatic stairs until the last floor and admire the view (it's for free). You can get a magnificent view of the cathedral and the old town buildings!

Waterloo battle re-enactment

Yesterday I have been to Waterloo. Or, actually, to be more precise, I have been to the Butte du Lion and adjacent battlefields, which are located between Waterloo and Braine-l'Alleud. Yesterday it was a special day as, similar to what happens every year, the anniversary of the battle is celebrated in a weekend in June and special events take place. Indeed, there were the 14th Napoleonic Bivoacs, which means that, in addition to what you can normally see in that area, you can watch a recreation of the environment lived at the time before the battle, the actual happening of the battle and the functioning of a war hospital (which is happening today).

First of all, after arrival, I entered the visitor's center and watched two movies (approximately 20 minutes each) about the battle. After, I climbed all the way up the Butte du Lion and got this sight of the battlefields.

Afterwards, I walked along the battlefields and moved towards the Hougoumont Farm, where the camping of the Allies was being recreated. It is a 15 minutes walk until you reach the place.

There you could see all kinds of people dressed up as the several Allies troops (UK, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Prussia) and their families.

This one had an earring!

Cute pompom :)

From there you could also get a nice view of the Butte du Lion.

There were people shooting rifles from time to time.

An important element to fight Napoleon!

There were pirates infiltrated?

Even the toys were dressed up! Action Men circa 1815...

In the end I went back to the Butte du Lion area and visited the Panorama (where you can see a 360º scenery of the battlefield) and the Wax Museum (not so cool after having seen real recreations of the people at the time). Afterwards, at 20h, there was going to take place the battle re-enactment, where the actors would recreate what happened during the battle (with horses and cannons and all that is required!). Unfortunately, the place where that was going to happen was 5km away from the Butte du Lion and I don't have a car, so having to walk 5km there and then back again to catch the train to Brussels in the middle of the night, didn't seem to be such a good idea. It was a pity because I really wanted to see it, but I asked for information on whether there was a bus to take us there and was told it was only reachable by car. If it was scheduled for a more proper time, like during the day, I wouldn't have minded to walk there and back, but at night it was everything but convenient. The camping of the French troops was also located on that area, so I didn't get to see it as well. During the day they had some events, like at lunch time you could see the meals being prepared like they did at the time and lunch being served to Napoleon. I think that if you have a car and can go on a next time, you can have a lot to see for the whole day! I thought the camping was really well made, as everyone was really into character (they were having dinner when I visited and they were cooking and using objects as at the time, like it was part of their routine and never minding the tourists). They were really acting as they were before a battle and there were way more actors than visitors, so you really could feel like you were back then. The costumes were really well made, with attention to lots of little details. I really loved it and hope I can comeback (with a car this time!) in 2015, when it will be celebrated the 200th anniversary of the battle and I am sure a big set of events would take place (in 2010, when the 195th anniversary was celebrated, the re-enactment took place at noon, which I believe is much more suitable!). I didn't find it too crowded (as I mentioned, there were more actors than visitors!), as I would have expected from a day like this, so you could perfectly move around, take all the photos you wanted and not wait to get to things.

As for visiting it on a normal day, it can be interesting too as you can access all the stuff I have mentioned before, minus the camping and the re-enactment of the battle. But I think that the time when it's really worth a visit is at this time of the year, otherwise the only most impressive thing is the Butte du Lion, which is indeed a magnificent monument. How to get there? From Brussels, take the train (direction Charleroi) to Braine-l'Alleud (just one stop away from Brussels, only 20 minutes of traveling, two trains per hour). There you have two options: either take the W bus to the Butte du Lion (attention for the fact that, on weekends, there's only 2 per hour) or walk there (I did that both ways and it only took me 20 minutes each, just ask someone at the station which direction you should take and then it's always straight ahead with signs indicating you the Butte du Lion).

Parlamentarium

If you're in Brussels and into the European Union issues, you should pay a visit to the Parlamentarium. It is a visitor's center located in the European Parliament, to which you can access for free and have a tour with one of the audio-guides provided (available in all 23 EU languages). The visit is very interactive, as you can pass your guide in some points of the exhibition and hear detailed explanations on some specific aspects, see pictures, etc. In the end you can watch a short movie about how the European Parliament works in a room with a 360 degree screen. The whole visit should take you about 1h and I really enjoyed going there, so I reccommend it!

Museum of Costumes and Lace

The Museum of Costumes and Lace is located in the centre of Brussels and currently is holding an exhibition about the 70's. You can see the different types of clothes, shoes and accessories worn at that time, as well as the fashion trends that were in back then. At the end, there's an area for kids to dress up and take photos in a vintage scenario.

This is a cute video played at the entrance that mixes 70's references with icons from Belgium

This exhibition will be on until March 2014, so there's plenty of time to see it. In the first Sunday of each month, however, the entrance is free, so take advantage of that! I thought that the rest of the museum's collection (the lace part) was not that special, but the visit is worthy for the 70's one.

Musée du Costume et de la Dentelle
Rue de la Violette 12
1000 Bruxelles
T +32 (0)2 213 44 50

Musical Instruments Museum's terrace

The Musical Instruments Museum, located close to the Mont des Arts, has a great terrace that you can access for free. It has a restaurant and a cafe on the last floor where you can enjoy a meal on top of Brussels, but you can also go up just for a look around and to take some photos of Brussels' skyline.

Museum Magritte

Yesterday I took advantage of the free entrance that many museums in Brussels allow to their visitors in the afternoon of the first Wednesday of each month and went to visit the Magritte Museum (located in Place Royal, right in front of the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition).

The Happy Donor, 1966

It is a nice museum and you can see plenty of artwork from this famous Belgian surrealist artist. However, there were two turndowns for me there: the museum is very dark (the rooms where the artwork is almost only have the light that illuminates it) and several of René Magritte's most famous paintings are not there (if you go to the museum's shop, for instance, you will see lots of posters and postcards with artwork that is not displayed in the exhibition). These were my two favorite paintings that I saw there.

The Empire of Light, 1950-1954

Overall, I would suggest a visit in one of these free days, or, if you're under 25, you can get in for just 2€ and take a person with you for free.

Yves Saint Laurent

Last weekend I have visited the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent - a visionary, at Espace Culturel ING. It is a very nice exhibition on the life and work of this great French fashion designer. The exhibition shows a large number of creations from his collections, jewellery and accessories, as well as drawings, sketches and other documents.

The normal entry price for adults is 6€, but if you have a students' card (thanks, Alliance Française!), you only pay 3€. In the end, for an extra 5€, you can participate in either of these workshops:

• “Textiles-Tactiles” workshop: dressing of paper doll cut-outs, decoration of fashion posters and creation of “Love Cards” with various fabrics and objects.
• “Textiles-Couture” workshop: create and clothe dolls and cuddly toys, accessories, bags and jewellery from recycled materials.

Then the dolls and the toys will be sold in favour of the ING Chances for Children project (to which the money collected from the tickets that give access to the workshops will revert as well). But you can also take your doll or toy home as a souvenir!

I participated in the paper doll one, where you can style up a known Yves Saint Laurent creation yourself, using all kinds of fabrics and beads for such purpose, and it was great. This is the final result, now hanging in one of my studio's walls:

And this is the original Yves Saint Laurent dress (a tribute to Tom Wesselmann) whose sketch I have used: