A Wet Wednesday

It just poured all day Wednesday. We had fortunately planned a museum day - yes, finally art museums were on the docket. This was a strategic move as many museums in Brussels are free after 1:00pm on the first Wednesday of the month. The Cinquantenaire Museum is part of the Royal Museums of Arts and History, kind of a set of them across the city. Since it is very close to the apartment (although it seemed quite far in the heavy rain), we went there first. I went ahead and paid the fee at 11:30am because I wanted to get to the other places close to 1:00pm. It is a big museum and we focused on the decorative arts, in particular the heart exhibit, originally started as a collection by some Belgian cardiovascular surgeon (or something close to that).

We ate yogurt while walking to the Merode Metro so I could buy my 3 day transit pass. This would allow me a lot more freedom on Wednesday through Friday and not have to count my trips (versus my previous 10-trip card strategy). Smart move as I've used it like crazy since, as you'll see. We took the #27 bus over to the Belgian Museum of Ancient Art and the Magritte Museum. The modern art museum is closed for a year for extensive renovations, but the ancient art museum, in a little wing on the way to the Magritte, did have a couple of rooms of modern art. I will say our art viewing was lacking in 19th through the first half of the 20th century (except of course for lots of Magritte). In the ancient art collection they had, as you could imagine, a lot of amazing Flanders art, one very fine Rembrandt, and a gigantic room filed with humongous Rubens' paintings.

We all absolutely loved the Magritte Museum. I particularly loved how they included some of his little sketches, pamphlets he had illustrated, graphic art including promotional pieces he'd done to make a living, and the history of his life and career. The museum was extremely well done.

Back out in the rain, we made a brief tram ride stop off for some unsuccessful shopping for clothes, purses, etc. Then it was back on the tram to meet up with Brian to gather dinner food at a trendy farmers' market. While there, Brian and I enjoyed a glass of champagne at one of the stands. This should be incorporated into all farmers' markets in the U.S. (along with the freshly cooked waffles, called galettes in this case, a slightly different variety than the gaufres).

Dinner at home - olive and goat cheese tampenade, green olives, baguettes, cheeses, and blueberries. Love.