Appreciating Art in Antwerp

Travelling with spaniels is a wonderful way to strike up a conversation with people, like the lovely Flemish lady walking her three whippets in the giant Vogelzang park near our overnight stop in Antwerp. But it does mean that sometimes cultural activities are restricted. It's seldom been convenient to get to an art gallery or museum - unless we are strolling around Roman ruins, or, in this case, a sculpture park. Having delved into the offerings of Antwerp, we decided that nothing appealed more than the Middelheim open air museum. The spaniels were particularly impressed by the sculpture of a dog by Toni Stadler.

Dog walk zone - you can translate the rest

Perhaps even more exciting was the discovery of a dog park on the way. Off-lead activities have to be carefully considered in unknown spaces, especially with Max's propensity for swimming after ducks. So a safe, fenced field in which to play ball was a real bonus - although temperatures of 25C mean it has to be strictly limited, otherwise Elsa will happily give herself heatstroke. Today, a good run around was much needed to burn off the accumulated stress of walking around Bruges yesterday, then being surrounded by dozens of very blasé bunnies at the campsite.

A rather less curvy Barbara Hepworth 

For the humans, the quarry was a Barbara Hepworth, several Rodins, a Henry Moore and an Ai Weiwei. The Barbara Hepworth was eventually discovered, looking nothing like we expected. It all brought back memories of taking Jackson Spaniel to Yorkshire Sculpture park some years ago. He was very well behaved that time. Unlike the time he spotted the statue of a fisherman in Eyemouth and went berserk.


Max and Elsa took it all in their stride - they were even unfazed by an exhibit that reflected us all, and allowed us to see through. And we promise, no statues were pee'd on in the making of this blog.



After exploring the parks, it was time to head for our next stop, which was supposed to be Arnhem. But after a short diversion to Carrefour for supplies, the arrival time was getting later and later thanks to multiple roadworks ahead, and we decided that it made more sense to stay on the A2 and cross the German border. So you find us tonight in Gelsenkirchen, near Essen, at a lovely little Stellplatz surrounded by trees. Sorry Netherlands, we'll get back to you later. And hello Germany, our first night here and slowly Neri's very rusty (37 years since I ditched German for Spanish at school) vocabulary is starting to return. Gute nacht!

Gelsenkirchen Motorhome Stellplatz