Transportation Carriage

The weather was fine when we ventured out after breakfast so first port of call was back to the military barracks.  On our visit the previous day we had forgotten to walk around the side to see the restored railway carriage that had transported the Jews from the barracks to Auschwitz Birkenau.

We then set off on a long trek visiting an exhibition of Rik Wouters art which is housed in  The Schepenhuis followed by what was formerly Margaret of Austria’s Palace, finally ending up in the Toy Museum, where we also took a break for lunch.  Whilst at the museum I picked up an excellent free magazine that covered the history, museums, churches and places of interest in Mechelen.

The Schepenhuis

St Margaret of Austria's Palace

Whilst returning from the Toy Museum to the centre of Mechelen we inadvertently found the tourist information office.  It became obvious why we had missed the day before!  It had been hidden by a market stall!! I didn’t find anything in the tourist information office that I hadn’t already researched myself.

Our next port of call was St Rumbold’s Cathedral, so that Mr C could ascend the tower.  I sat enjoying the sunlight playing on the statue of St Rumbould and read the free Mechelen magazine that I had picked up and realised that I had happened on an unexpected gem, it had all the information that I could have hoped for.  When we left the Cathedral the Mechelen carnival was in full flow.  The crowd was showered with sweets, popcorn, plastic balls and cuddly toys. It was lovely to watch the children running around trying to gather them up.  Beer was handed out along the way and a bag of little china ornaments was pressed into our hands.  We initially thought it was a nativity set but on closer inspection it was six oriental gentlemen.

Carnival

After all that we had a well deserved rest in the hotel before our evening meal, which again was followed by a nightcap in the hotel before retiring for the night.

8 Comments CherryPie on Apr 2nd 2014

8 Responses to “Mechelen – Day Three”

  1. Astrid says:

    Your visit to Mechelen sounds like a real treat. This also shows how much there is so see and do in a town, you covered a whole area which we did not see, on our last visit.
    It is fun that you saw the Carnival, it looks so different from what I see in Dutchland.
    The hotel looks wonderful and a fun place to stay. Wonderful pictures.

    • CherryPie says:

      It is a fascinating town with much history. We didn’t visit all the things that we had on our to do list. We got distracted by unexpected gems ;-)

      The hotel was a special place to stay. If we return to Mechelen we would stay there again :-)

  2. What a colourful parade!
    Did you get any sweets? Ha ha :)

  3. This gets better and better Cherie, felt quite moved when I saw the cattle truck that the poor Jewish souls were transported into lord knows what fate?
    It breaks my heart to believe that the Nazis could be so cruel to his fellow man, but there it is, and it is still happening all over the world, Don’t they ever learn.
    Looks like a beautiful City,
    love ,
    Di.x

    • CherryPie says:

      The story that goes with the cattle truck is quite upsetting. I will be posting more about it when I go into more detail about the places we visited.

      No we never learn, the same thing keep repeating. It is a never ending cycle…

      Mechelen is a beautiful and interesting city and I would love to be back there ;-)

  4. james higham says:

    The clipped hedges are really something.