The Platin-Moretus museum was a printing press during the Dutch Golden Age... a big one. An axis, in fact, for humanist learning...
Mmm, humanism. One of my favoritest things in the world. Hell, I like revivals of all kinds. Better than revivals, though, are those rare beautiful things that have remained essentially the same.
Behind bars, behind glass... good thing too, or else I would been all up in there with my greedy, grimy fingers. Other than the employees, I had that entire museum to myself!
So, yeah. They've kept this enormous printing press completely intact for literally hundreds of years. It's great, filled floor to ceiling with eye candy just like this.
Cavernous silent workshops crammed with monstrously huge, hulking printing presses, all retired now. Rooms lined with celestial and earthly globes, maps, engravings, all from the Renaissance.
I wandered through, almost in a daze, at my absolute leisure. It was like a heavenly dream.
I highly recommend it to anyone who happens to be visiting Europe. And loves books, and quiet places, and old things.
That's how a lot of my time there was, in that city. Antwerp. It was modern in a some notable ways -- diverse (especially for Belgium). Busy, on the water. There were plenty of conveniences, like a phalanx of spiffy public phones that accepted prepaid cards.
But at the same time... I was fully and deliciously aware that my shoes were treading the same ancient stones as a thousand others... down twisted, crinkling secret alleyways the Romans themselves might have used. I explored Rubens's house, for Pete's sake. Got closer to him than that luckless kid from The Dog of Flanders ever did. I saw his statue in the middle of a huge square, atop a gigantic pedestal.
I waited and waited for my opportune moment, but that bird would just not get off his head. It was probably having a nice long poop session. How rude
I went back four times. That's a long train ride from Brussels, by the way. But their fine arts museum kept calling to me, so I went there -- twice. And I had to go to Ruben's friend's house -- his name was Rockox -- which had also been kept in good condition. That city, it was like a time machine. I couldn't get enough.
You may rest now
There will probably be more to say about Antwerp later. For now, I bid you good night.