In My Mother's Garden

28+29-4-2007

Gravenhurst + Explosions in the Sky (Depot, Leuven, 20-4-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

What an amazing night! I'm still so impressed that I hardly know what to write!
I'll give it a try anyway ;-)

Gravenhurst are from England and they make music which touches my soul. During the concert I was suddenly thinking about the movie about the German guy Schultze who played German tunes on his accordion un till he heard some Zydeco on the radio and he was so captured by this that he couldn't play decent German accordion tunes any-more because they all turned into Zydeco. Musically this has nothing to do with Gravenhurst because they don't play accordion, German tunes or Zydeco but they have what I now call the "Schultze-effect": they start a tune all quiet and lovely but eventually it all turns into noise; they cannot help it, it's in their blood. It's like the emotions of the song suddenly cannot be contained any longer...

See their site: http://www.silentagerecords.co.uk/gravenhurst/
Hear some music: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/artiesten/artiest/18336218

Explosions in the Sky are from Texas, USA and are by far the most beautiful thing ever to have come from there! Their music is totally amazing, it doesn't just touch your soul: it absorbs it. It is quite literally breathtaking for I had to tell myself twice to start breathing again during this one song...
They create this amazing soundscape atmospherical strange and lovely world around you and all you can do is listen and watch in wonder. Many images will float through your mind: of deserts at night with starry skies; of weird planets with strange animals; of scary precipices; of dancing hand in hand in a meadow filled with colourful flowers; of aliens waving to you from their spaceship; of post-apocalyptic worlds; of terror and beauty and beautiful terror and terrible beauty...

And the great thing is that they don't take any breaks in between songs (songs are mostly 8 minutes and longer anyway) but they just keep on playing and playing so you don't have to come down to this world again un till they are finished.
See their site: http://www.explosionsinthesky.com/
Hear some music: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/artiesten/artiest/10908349

A Day in Brugge (Friday the 13th of april, 2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Brugge (or Bruges in English) is the most touristic town of Belgium. I'm quite sure that at least 80% of all Japanese people on this world has been there at least once. The reason for this is that it's still a very medieval town. So it is fun to visit and it has several nice museums too but don't expect to be alone ;-)

We've been there several times before (just read the reviews) and this time we visited:

1) the exhibit "The Handsome and the Mad" which was about Philip the Handsome and Joanna the Mad.
It was a very enjoyable exhibit in the Church-of-our-Lady with some beautiful pieces.

2) the exhibit about Albrecht Dürer's graphic work in the "Arentshuis", a very nice old house. I love Dürer's works so that was very enjoyable too. His details and human depiction are brilliant!

3) Celtic Ireland Irish Pub and Restaurant for some decent smoked salmon and red beer ;-) The one in Antwerp is still the best by the way (read the review, there's a link there)

4) Choco-Story, a museum about the history of chocolate. The information has a lot of grammar mistakes and faulty historical 'facts' but the basics are interesting. Their collection of Mexican archaeological objects is very nice eventhough it lacks good information. And the chocolate objects there are quite amazing. And so is the smell!

5) Our favourite chocolate shop (De Burg, see review) for some mouthwatering chocolates

And after that we sat near the water to look at all the swans (at least 20!). When we walked back to the station later we also saw a great crested grebe with a nest with 3 eggs! Pretty cool right?

Purple and Brown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_and_Brown
Funny clay animation! I saw a few episodes while watching tv when on vacation in Dublin ;-)

Things to do in Dublin when you're dead: Glasnevin Cemetery (26-3-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Bordering the botanic gardens is Ireland's largest cemetery. It takes you some time to walk around the botanic gardens to the entrance of the cemetery but it's worth it!

This cemetery is indeed very large and has many different sights. Parts look dusty and rocky while others are shadowy and green. People who visit their relatives can drive their car onto the cemetery and quite near to the graves (except on saturdays as the sign at the entrance said) so you get an idea of the size.

If you like visiting cemeteries and Irish crosses this is your place to be! Visit their site: http://www.glasnevin-cemetery.ie/#

National Botanic Garden (Dublin, 26-3-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I love visiting botanic gardens because they always show a lot of nice plants, they're usually nice and quiet and you usually get to see some animals there. Ireland's national botanic garden quite a large one with several lovely greenhouses and it's indeed very nice and quiet! If I was living in Dublin I'd definitely go there often just to sit on a bench and read a book. Very peaceful!

There is also a restaurant (which was filled because it was lunch time), an exhibit room and a research facility with herbariums and books. And it's for free of-course!
So if you are looking for some peace and quiet or some nice trees and still want to be close to food and other facilities this is a perfect spot!
Their site: http://www.botanicgardens.ie/

National Museum of Ireland (Dublin, 25-3-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The National Museum of Ireland is actually four different museums. All of them are free! We visited two (the ones next to each other and next to the National Gallery): Archaeology& History and Natural History.

We went to the Archaeology&History museum first. This museum has a large collection of objects from pre-historic Ireland including an amazing collection of gold; a treasury with great Celtic objects; a special exhibit with Irish bog bodies; some objects from Medieval times; a collection of fine Egyptian stuff and for some weird reason ceramics from ancient Cyprus. They also have a collection Irish Viking objects but sadly that part was closed because of structural problems in the rooms.
The Bronze age gold collection, the bog bodies and the Celtic treasury are my absolute favourites. It was especially great to see some bog bodies for real because I had not seen any (except in books) before.
It isn't a very big museum but the collections are terrific and the museum itself is quite beautiful too.

The Natural History is known in Dublin as the "dead zoo". It's a nice dusty, old, Victorian collection of stuffed animals in a building that makes a perfect setting. They also have the largest collection of original glass models (see picture of a jellyfish model) in this world. I totally love those so I'm quite envious!
Totally worth a visit if you like old museums and stuffed animals!