This article should have been different. I wanted to go to Mechelen to visit the Clock and Watch Museum since Rebecca Struthers mentioned it in her book “Hands of Time”. As you already know from my visit to London, if there is a watch and clock museum then I want to see it. Thus I went to the museum’s website to book my tickets as one in the digital age would normally do. The shock! The museum allows only groups of ten. Two watch enthusiasts (one bigger than the other) are not allowed. I tried writing the museum, mentioned this blog, and why I want to see their collection. No reply! I am genuinely heartbroken. The only watch museum in Belgium is closed to enthusiasts (unless you are a group of at least ten people). Maybe it is due to August being a holiday month or since I don’t speak Flemish they don’t want to bother.
Heartbroken or not, Mechelen is a city we wanted to see. The internet has labeled it the hidden gem of Belgium, the one Belgian city international tourists have yet to discover. As crazy as it may sound, the Internet was right.
Even though the train station is under construction…
…Mechelen is beautiful. It is thirty minutes from Brussels, less than my commute to work. You could see the Atomium from the top of Saint Rumbold’s cathedral.
For those wondering, you need to muscle 538 flights of stairs to reach the top of Saint Rumbold’s cathedral. That is a real leg workout. While suffering you may enter various chambers to catch your breath and examine old workstations. It is worth the pain. Below you can see the view from above and one of the chambers (among other things).
The higher you climb the more interesting it gets. Have you seen church bells up and close? Luckily our eardrums survived.
Even though I did not see the Clock and Watch Museum, I did see Saint Rumbold’s clock. I even heard it and watched it move. At least something to satisfy my horological needs. Below “you can see the 16th-century clockwork and 18th-century drum. The brass drum has over 16,000 holes, all filled by hand. A few thousand pins in the drum determine the melody played by the automatic chimes.”
One could say that Saint Rumbold’s cathedral is the main attraction of Mechelen. However, it also has a river called Dyle. You probably can’t swim in the Dyle (unless you are a fan of E.coli), but you can imagine yourself as a holy man and walk on it. The Dyle has a long footbridge that lets you enjoy the old and the new architecture. We loved both.
Before writing this article I was sure it was a channel. Don’t you get a little Amsterdam vibe from seeing the photo below? I could imagine a boathouse sitting on one bank or the other. What are the chances of someone living full-time in one of those boats? The one thing Brussels is missing is a natural river. That is the only thing (don’t laugh!).
Remember the first photo of the train station? Usually, when arriving in a Belgian city you see loads of bikes next to the train station. Not this time. At least I did not see any. But I did see one rusting away next to a church.
Did someone mention architecture? Mechelen has stunning buildings both old and new. Sadly I mostly took pictures of old buildings. Probably due to the influence of Saint Rumbold’s, you see a lot of religious statues on facades. I did hear from someone that Mechelen is the home of the archbishop of Belgium, whether true or not you be the judge. I believe the time has come to plan a trip to Rome.
I ate chocolate skulls. They were supposed to have a tiramisu filling. Even though I was not impressed by the taste, the presentation was refreshing (remember all those religious statues?) For lunch/dinner, we found a bar called “Bao”. My wonderful wife agreed to split a set of fried dumplings (delicious), she drank a non-alcoholic beer whereas I opted for an IPA (both delicious), and then the main course… I did not take a picture because it was mind-blowingly good. I simply forgot to take a picture. We each took a bao burger (?), mine was with fried chicken and my wife chose pork. Add sweet potatoes to the mix and we were full.
This happened even before we had lunch/dinner. We went inside a bookstore to check whether they had any Bicycle cards. They had none. But what they did have was a deck of 3D cards. It was a 3D cat deck. Honestly, I did not have to think twice. With this deck in my collection, I currently hold 83 decks. You can read about my collection here.
Even though I did not visit the Clock Museum, I thoroughly enjoyed Mechelen. Its reputation is legit. People need to appreciate this wonderful city before it is flooded with tourists from the Far East. Imagine going up those 538 flights while stopping every two to three steps because someone further up has to take a break. As I said, Mechelen is just thirty minutes from Brussels by train. The return ticket is 11 EUR.
Enjoy.
Olaaf
