time in Nitra

Friday was wet again – but only after I had cycled to and from the morning swim. Thunder rumbled in the distance all the gloomy afternoon. Eastern Slovakia was badly hit with floods in recent weeks.
Still looking for decent art books on Slovak painters. Bought Dagmar, my hostess, two things her well-endowed house seems short of - 6 good-sized wine glasses and an apron! And browsed in a large book-store. Reading Zeldin’s The French. The Nitra wines are disappointing – Mojmirovce ones are vastly superior but not available in shops.
Thursday I visited Tesco’s in Nitra and picked up a selection of Nitra wines to taste and hopefully find some I could take back in bulk. Also a pair of comfortable German shoes; a tent (in a sale for 20 euros) and a pillow (ditto for 5 euros). It was a warm and sunny day – so I strolled the back street where I used to have a bank account and had left some cash – only to find that a new bank was in its place. Nothing daunted, I went in with my passport and was told that customers of the previous bank were customers of the new one. After some difficulty, my file was duly produced and a figure of several thousand euros duly appeared on the screen. I was stupid enough to ask whether this was DM or euro (since my account in 1996 had been in German marks). I could barely believe my luck as the money was counted out in euros! I shared some of my good fortune with Tatiana and Edit – who certainly need a break. Cooked the meal for Edit and family who had been working hard on their house – mildly marinated pork and basmati rice – with my exotic side dishes of banana and yoghourt and orange and onion.
In evening met up with Stefan – whose father-in-law has taken a bad tumble.

idyll in Mojmirovce

Tues-Wed
Swimming at 07.00 in the morning – and cycling around the village is a great luxury. I realised that, starting from the stay in Wezembeek-Oppem, this journey has become quite nostalgic. Time spent in WO and in Mojmiriovce was always quality time – both places treasures in their different ways. Both offer quality living – but the first as an artefact of the 20th century with the emphasis on private wealth; the second is a real society very much centred on the Kastiel and the wider cooperative. Tuesday was the day Slovakia played its first ever game in World Cup Finals – against New Zealand – and, an hour before kick-off, a large TV screen was duly assembled in the Kastiel restaurant as we ate our lunch. Then a reunion with Edith, Tatiana and Theresa who had been so kind to us in 1996 when we rented the house from them. They have fallen on dark times in the last few years – and it was moving to see them all in such good spirits. They have been homeless for the past month or so – and with typical generosity Stefan has put them up at the Kastiel as they manage the Herculean task of making a home from the shell they have bought in the village.
At 14.00 the match started and within hopes were raised when Slovakia scored a goal. I had to leave for a haircut (afternoons only – and only 2 euros!) and my return seemed to bring bad luck as New Zealand equalised in the dying seconds of the match. The Kastiel is so successful that I was unable to prong my stay there (they have 100 beds) and the girls too had to leave – but fixed us all up at a friend’s who has a very large modern house in the village.
Wednesday I had promised to take Edith to the Nitra Hospital for her check-up - but the arrival of missing workmen called her back while we were en route. Later we resumed the journey – by which time steady rain had set in. I wanted to see the antiquarian shops – and duly bought Stefan a Czech ceramic tea set and entertained Edith and Tatiana to lunch with the rain drumming overhead. I had left Stefan with my material on Bulgarian and Belgian art – and presented him with the tea set.

Flags and what they say about Belgian and German nationhood

I had remarked to Marie Claire that the small number of Belgian flags on the houses seemed a bad sign for the outcome of Sunday’s parliamentary vote in Belgium. And this was underscored by the plethora of German flags hanging out of German cars as I drove through Germany on Sunday – the day the German football team starts its attempt in South Africa at World Cup glory.
I left Brussels at 05.00 and decided to try a new route – via Trier and Heilbronn rather than Aachen, Bonn and Frankfurt. It worked – although I significantly made a false start through failing to remember that Luik is the Flemish name for Lieges and is the only designation given on the aurotoute to the town from north Brussels for 40kms or so until you hit Brabant county.
The Eiffel countryside is very pretty – and the German church service on the radio was an added pleasure on the morning drive.
Hit the Danube just after 14.00 and made a detour to Passau to try to find a village Gasthaus to stay in. Wolf an der Danau offered a lot of them but seemed too small. Standing was too busy! Returned to the motorway (without tolls!) and came off again at Deggendorf – on the Danube – a very charming small town where I put up at the StadtHotel – www.stadthotel-deggendorf.de – for 35 euros (inc breakfast).
A large TV screen had been mounted in the town square to allow people to watch the German match later in the evening – and there was a real festive feel in the air. A fantastic Asparagus soup, cordon bleu and Gruner Weltliner (Ried Sandgrube) – and quality service – in the courtyard of der Graue Hase rounded off a good day. Although I did join the German crowd in the bar opposite the hotel to see the German team score 2 gaols. I felt, however, a bit self-conscious about the academic way I reacted in such a gathering to the goals and quietly slipped away at half-time.

As anticipated, the Belgian vote (its compulsory there) produced another deadlock – with Flanders voting for independence and Wallony continuing to support the kingdom of Belgium. Support for the independence option is less than 25% - but, on that argument, we would never have seen a Scottish Parliament. Amazingly the Belgian Constitution has no provision for referenda. Admittedly the Czech-Slovak break-up took place without a referendum. And, when a country is divided into 2 equal parts, a referendum should technically be held in both parts and require a majority in both.

Serendipitidy finds my best bookshop

Friday morning sat in street cafe in central Brussels and watched the world go by – in all shapes, forms and colours. Quite amazing – if only I could shoot my camera unseen to catch the severe black burka, for example, with a colourful and sexy midriff dress; or the young woman in a fluffy white dress whose arms were covered with tattos!
I wandered through the old square as a tourist – and then ventured up the hill toward Gare Centrale to check the old bookshops I used to frequent there 25 years ago. What I discovered was my Aladdin’s Cave – an old house stretching to five floors and groaning with books and pamphlets. Surely the greatest bookshop ever for me! POSADA ART BOOKS Rue de la Madeleine 29 – http://www.artbooks@posada.be
I asked about Belgian realist paintings and Constantin Meunier and de Groux in particular – which established my eccentricity since few books exist on this period (mainly latter part of the 19th century). I did lose a bit of credibility, however, by revealing my ignorance that there were in fact 2 de Grouxs. Professional pride and curiousity was, however, aroused – and I had half an hour’s great help from an American customer who knew a great deal about the subject and who managed to track down exactly what I was after – which was a considerable feat as neither of us knew what that was! It turned out to be Arbeit und Alltag - soziale Wirklishkeit in den belgischen Kunst 1830-1914 produced in 1979. Even the toilet was crammed with sketches and posters. In one section I found a 1947 publication (in A4 size) on L'art Moderne Bulgare (which managed to omit mention of Nicolas Tanev (and others) but which was still worth buying for its woodcuts, perspective and rarity (I have seen no other book on the subject). I had paid and was (reluctantly) heading out almost 3 hours after entering (along with a catalogue for a Paris sale later in month of Orientalist stuff) when, typically, I hit gold – a 1904 first edition of a book on Die Belgische Mahlerei – with pictures of many of the relevant painters!

a place in Brussels?

Having praised the Belgian painting schools, it was appropriate that yesterday was a celebration of Belgian architecture. The apartment I was looking at was in the Simonis/Jette area – within sight of the huge Basilique St Coeur and round the corner from a stately park. The turrets of the red brick buildings with a mix of bay windows and balustrades stretch into the distance – with hardly a space between them. Images of elegant carriages (from Flemish painting) contrasted with the reality of burkhas!
The flat was from the 1930s with one of these marvellous see-through arrangements of 3 rooms - ie the 3 rooms opening out on one another and allowing the light from front and back windows to light the place.
Having a flat in Brussels makes more and more sense for me at my advanced age - with all the access it so easily offers to the cultural treasures not only of Belgium (or whatever will follow its presently anticpated demise) but of France, Germany and Netherlands.

Brussels culture

Have now identified some possible apartments here in Brussels and will make a first visit Thursday – in a nice area. Had the idea today of revisiting the Musee des Beaux arts whose presentation of Belgian painters and sculptors so impressed me first more than 20 years ago. And this was no disappointment – although only one of the striking Constantin Meunier sculptures of coal miners and their grieving wives now on display (see above). I had forgotten just how powerful Belgian realistic painters of the late 19th century were - such as Charles Degroux and Eugene Laermans with their studies of poverty (Le banc des pauvres showing the haggard faces at the side of the church service) and the effect of alcohol , Braekeleer (with his interiors) and Leon Frederic (with his studies of various age groups). The museum library was groaning with books on Magritte, James Ensor and Felix Ropf – and also on Breughel and Bosch (one of whose massive triptychs was folded to draw the visitor in for closer study) but not a single book apparently on the realist painters. However I did find one of these large black and white catalogues of the entire museum stock of “modern” painting which gave me what I wanted – 700 pages each with about 10 small versions of the paintings - for 5 euros! I came out of the gallery to typical Brussels gloom and rain. The gallery has an excellent website where you can access most of the paintings. The pictures which now head up the last few blogs are taken from that website.
Before that I had encountered one of these amazing shops devoted to classical music –at least to the (German) Nexos brand which allowed me to get 2 free CDs for 1 bought at 7 euros. This encourages experimentation – and so I was very pleasantly surprised by such revelations as Alfred Hill’s String Quartets vol 1 (a New Zealander who lived from 1869 to 1960); Giovanni Platti’s 6 Flute Sonatas op 3 (1697-1763) and various French Flute composers (Donjon; Genin; Godrad; Gaubert; Gounod) of the late 19th century. The opportunity for such musical and cultural serendipity is perhaps the main criterion in the selection of the base I seek – and does strongly point to this area. I remember with fondness a similar shop in Sofia.

vision and commerce

Had been worried about black specks floating occasionally in my vision and managed on Friday to get a session with an optician who gave me various tests and pronounced me clear of glaucoma but suffering from further deterioration of sight and therefore now in need of driving glasses. Idea of variable glasses came up – allowing one to have perfect distance and reading vision in one set. And so I duly popped in on Monday to a shop which explained (visually) the 3 levels of such glasses – in such a way, it must be said, that left little option than to ask for the “individualised” rather than the “standard” or “optimum” models. Running my parameters through their computer produced a figure of 360 euros for each lens plus the frame – meaning a bill of 1,000 euros. That explained why each customer had a cubicle to himself – and a seat on which to collapse! Belgium is, therefore, not immune from the crass commercialisation which has overtaken healthcare – and well analysed and critiqued in a book I bought later in the day from Waterstone’s – NHS plc by Allyson Peacock.
I managed to resist the other titles – simply noting them for Amazon purchases which work out at half the Waterstone prices. They included new collections of articles by Garton Ash, John Gray; an intriguing psychology book (The Compassionate Mind by Prof Paul Gilbert); a book on the politics of the present economic mess by the admirable BBC economic commentator Robert Peston; and John Kay’s one on markets; a large historical overview by John Keane, the great writer on democracy; and a delightful one on poetry by the renaissance man Stephen Fry.
Tuesday morning started with the luxury of reading another edition of New York Review of Books which I had also managed to pick up at Waterstone’s – and was very struck with an article by Mark Lilla which helped make sense of American politics - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/may/27/tea-party-jacobins/
The picture is a de Brakeleer from the Brussels Musee des Beaux Arts