This week has been going back to old friends, and picking up some new ones on the way.  I’ve had a wonderful time.  It started in Amsterdam, an unexpected starting point, but a very lovely one.  The journey was meant to be Hull to London then Eurostar to Brussels, then on to Bruges, but between train strikes (up the workers!) and engineering works, this starting leg was no longer an option.  P&O Ferry is no longer an option, despite sailing from Hull (up the workers!) so in order to still honour S’s big birthday plan, and a non-refundable hotel in Bruges, the little plane that could took us from Humberside to Amsterdam in a 50 minute dash across the pond.  We arrived at lunchtime, had lunch and then looked around the temporary exhibition at the Stedelijk museum, called Yesterday Today, which put on display pieces from the permanent collection 1880 – 1950.  Such wonderful rooms, particularly at the start, which were displayed salon-style: Van Gogh, Malevich, Matisse, Goncharova, Mondriaan… .  so, so many.  Leaving at closing time, we checked in to awesome hotel (the gloriously named Hotel van Gogh) and headed out to the Blauwe Hollander for some Dutch scran.

Good breakfast and a tram to Centraal Station later, a train journey long enough to open a book, and arrival in Bruges.  It is the sixth time I’ve stayed in Bruges, which includes a Christmas and a birthday.  It’s a wonderful place to just wander around and the museums are top-notch, too.  It was great to explore it through new eyes – S picked it as the location for her birthday, and it was a top pick.  She started with a gorgeous hotel (dating from early 1500s, upon an even older basement); then to answer the question – how to make the best out 48 hours in Bruges?  Answer – get a Bruges museum card and do as much as your feet will allow.  Adornes Domien (the Jerusalem Church, and do have a brew in the Scottish Lounge and help with the Breughel jigsaw on the table) the Volkskundemuseum and dinner at the Café Vlissinge (oldest pub in Bruges), then a day of the  Gruuthuismuseum, Arendthuis, St Jans Hospital, lunch, Groenigenmuseum, pop briefly in to Onze Lieuve Vrouw, have a birthday dinner at Cambrinus (all the cool kids do this) then the final morning, climb the Belfry – if climbing 369 steps first thing on a Monday appeals.  That still left the town hall to visit on the Museum card, as well as the Basilica of the Holy Blood, however, we saw a part of the true cross at the Jerusalem church, so who needs to look at a box with blood in it (we’re told, but we don’t get to see)?

In between this, much walking and seeing bits of Bruges on the way round.  There are book shops to go in and buildings to admire and canals to walk up and down.  It is a happy place to be, and lovely to share with someone who loves exploring new places, and loves Flemish stuff.  Good work all round. 

I left S unceremoniously at Bruges station, realising that I couldn’t travel with her as planned – she was returning to Schiphol, and I was going on to Antwerp, but had a local ticket rather than long-distance, so had to get to Antwerp on the direct route.  I arrived in a rainy Antwerp in the afternoon and checked in to a lovely B&B near the Courts of Justice, in southern Antwerp (the courts are a really interesting looking building in their own right).  I had excellent pizza from Café Pugliese (do go there if you’re ever in the area, and stay at the B&B, too (the Boutique B&B Maison Emile) and had an evening family Zoom quiz – I’m happy to report we are still doing these.  In the morning, I went for a run, picking the tunnel under the river (the St Anna tunnel) as my route, which is 1.37 km in length.  I think it’s the first time I’ve run underwater.  It was an ace way to start the day.  The rest of the day was spent at KMSKA – the fine art museum, newly opened after 10+ years of refurbishment.  It is highly recommended – the collection of Old Masters and modern art is excellent and has some modern twists in curation.  There is a lovely café, too.  Genuinely, I spent the whole day there – there was enough to do including a superb temporary exhibition by artist Ives Maes, photographing the locations of previous international World Fairs – really moving photographs of some sites still in use, some sites used for new activities, some fallen in to disrepair, some elements relocated – there were a couple of paragraphs of history for each of the locations, not shying away from which ones (including in home Belgium) with unsavoury, including racist, elements to them, such as 100 Congolese men and women placed in a human zoo to show the ‘development of man’ as part of one of the 19^th century international exhibitions, following which at least 7 of the individuals died due to poor treatment.  One of the other sites in Brussels is still used for some of the national museums now (army and automobiles) in a lovely park – Maes’ photograph dates from 2011 when it was also a temporary tented village for activists and to highlight the peril of the poorer residents in the capital city. 

Antwerp was the last place abroad that J and I had visited before Covid-19 and the first lock-down.  I really enjoyed our break there – it has a really interesting history and a lovely feel to the place, and this time was the same.  Another good friend with which to be briefly re-acquainted, and picking up a new friend of the KMSKA on the way. 

Then an evening train to Paris, in order to head further south on Wednesday morning – up and at ‘em for the 07.53 train to Lausanne (thinking of work in particular that day, and the ambulance strikes that were taking place – up the workers!) and taking a connection to Montreux.

Yup, another old friend.  Third visit to Montreux – back to the Queen Studio experience, the walk along the bank of Lake Geneva to Chilion Castle (which goes past Freddie Mercury’s bench in front of the apartment he bought (but never finished the renovations to move in)), past the Youth Hostel where I’ve stayed before – currently closed for winter and also being refurbished, I noticed, up the funicular to Glion and to take in even bigger views.  The views across the lake to mountains – this time with snowy tops! – will never cease to be peaceful and glorious – just as Queen captured in A Winter’s Tale on the Made in Heaven album.  Freddie’s handwritten lyrics are on display as part of the exhibition, which is really moving to see.  Once again, I sat at the control desk in the Queen Studio Experience and mixed versions of Made in Heaven and Mother Love: Freddie’s vocals on full for both tracks.  Drums on full for Made in Heaven (Roger asks you to do that in a VT beforehand).  Guitars on full for Mother Love.  Once again, almost crying at the deck at how beautiful the sound is, how sincere it all sounds – an album very much made with love and a joy of music.  Back outside, the Tribute wall on the side of the casino where Mountain Studios was based, is full of writing, tributes, hand-drawn pictures – birthday and Christmas wishes dating back several years jumped out at me this time (Freddie’s statue has some Christmas decorations, and a Christmas Miffy friend visited this time, too . . .  )

Inside the Studio Experience, there is a wall for written messages, too, which is new. Someone had written out the Hungarian lyrics of the folk song that Freddie and Brian May taught themselves for the concert in the amphitheatre in Budapest in 1986 as part of the Kind of Magic tour – Budapest being behind the Iron Curtain at the time.  The effort by Queen to sing a popular song, which had no nationalist or hidden meaning, but an expression of friendship, is still hugely appreciated by Hungarian fans today, and shown by the effort someone had made to put together their own handwritten version, include screen shot photos of Freddie reading the lyrics off of his hand when singing it, laminate it (that makes it official) and bring it to Montreux. 

It was familiar territory back in Montreux; quieter than when I had visited in autumn but still a few Queen fans there for the day.  It was lovely to experience Montreux during winter, when it is mostly locals going about daily life, with much pottering and dog-walking at the lakeside.  I could never stop taking in the views.  It rained all day, but I did not mind at all.  It provided some amazing cloud patterns over the water.    

Bundled back on a train to Lausanne, then on to Zurich for the evening.  Third stay in Zurich, and I have spent a few hours passing through before as well.  The first stay was a proper overnight stay having explored as much as possible in a day following the Duncan Smith’s excellent Only in Zurich book.  The second stay was approximately 8 hours in a hotel room, having taken the last train in, in order to get the first train out (07.07) to Chur, in order to catch the Bernina Express – a completely stunning journey – do it!.  This stay was less rushed – check in to Ibis Styles, run along Lake Zurich in the morning, spend an entire day in an art museum.  This time, the Zurich Kunsthalle, which houses two loaned collections from very rich Swiss people, as well as its own permanent collection.  The museum has been redeveloped and expanded, and occupies two buildings connected by a tunnel (or you can just cross the road).  The permanent collection is in a concrete and brass building of gorgeousness, designed by a British architect and really very functional as a calm art gallery.  It houses 13 van Gogh paintings (!) as well as many, many Monets, Manets, Renoirs, Morisots, Picassos, Delauneys (both flavours), 1 Pollock, some Man Ray and Warhol, Miros, a Malevich, Klees, Chagalls… the history of the collection is interesting and there has been specific research as to how art entered the collection (whether this is the Kunsthalle’s own collection or the private collections that have now been loaned or donated for permanent display), how legitimately the art entered these collections, some huge undertakings on tracking down provenance and uncovering the truth relating to suspicious Nazi-looking gaps in provenance and what has been done about them.  The largest collection is the Buhrle collection – a toolmaker turned arms (guns) maker, extremely rich and realised (both from understanding what went on during the war in art circles (and, you know, selling weapons during WWII), as well as a purchase being blocked in the Swiss courts involving him and some other collectors) that 13 of the paintings he had bought were Nazi confiscated, and a further several were sold while the original Jewish owners thought they have been placed in safe keeping.  Interestingly, Buhrle was able to re-buy most of the paintings where he tracked down the original owner, and also won the right to sue the dealer who sold them to him during the war in the first place.  The Kunsthalle has published quite extensive research on its website and its curators have published books on their own research – really interesting and moving to learn about.

And today is the journey back to Hull.  Up for a run in Paris, breakfast and the high-speed train to Brussels – I still have the Eurostar return journey via Brussels – slightly frustratingly, you can change the dates and times for a Eurostar ticket as many times as you want, but you can’t change destination.  Not a problem – taking a train from Brussels is always a good prospect.  I’ll be taking a train to The North – beloved Yorkshire – and meeting J on the train in Hull to head to Filey, and the seaside for the weekend!  Organised, long-distance walks are back, and it is the turn of the Filey Flyer tomorrow – 25 miles of seaside and moors walking.  Marvellous.