Today, we went to Hoogstraten to a photography exhibition on the history of this small town. Unfortunately, it was closed, so I took some pictures from the béguinage (i looked it up, and yes, this is the English word for it :-)). You can find these small towns within a town all over the country. The beguines were a religious movement of women. Their success was due to a surplus of women occasioned by violence, war, military and semi-military operations, which took the lives of many men. Great numbers of women had no option but to unite and collectively secure the aid of rich benefactors (according to wikipedia). Sounds not very religious actually lol! I agree you're getting dark pictures from me this week. I'm not depressed, just experimenting with high contrast B&W conversion.
Which gives me an idea! Anyone up for a battlefield tour? We have WW1 (Flanders' Fields), 2 (Bastogne, battle of the bulge) and Napoleon (Waterloo)! On the other hand, don't really want to turn the blog into tourist information either :-)
I've been wanting to do one of the 'drives'. I've been to some of the WWII sites but would really like to explore some more in that area.. and I am not 100% sure Amy is as interested in it as I am..
ReplyDeleteThis is where I have been so far..
http://scottaxel.blogspot.com/2009/03/american-cemetery-of-henri-chapelle.html
http://scottaxel.blogspot.com/2009/03/fort-battice.html
http://scottaxel.blogspot.com/2009/03/remember-museum.html
Nice shots! Is that the fort of Eben-Emael?
ReplyDeleteI have a book with 3 routes in the area: from Bastogne to Houffalize, Sankt Vith to La Gleize and Bande to Celles, which make for a long weekend in the area. Maybe we can give it a try one of the coming weekends. Would love to give my car a good test drive!