Rubens House.

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In 1610, after returning from Italy and marrying artist's model Isabella Brandt (1591 — 1626), Flemish diplomat, painter, graphic artist, designer, and collector Peter Paul Rubens (1577 — 1640) purchased a property on what was then Vaartstraat (now the Wapper) in Antwerpen (Anvers). Having specifically received permission from the sovereigns of the Spanish Netherlands to establish his studio in his ancestral home town rather than at the court in Brussel (Bruxelles), Rubens set about altering the residence in subsequent years. Though famous in his own time for his paintings of various religious and mythological subjects, portraits, landscapes, tapestries, and scenes inspired by historical events, he's perhaps now more readily associated with "rubenesque" figures, given his penchant for painting mature, fully-developed women, rather then abnormal, starved wretched wenches of the sort widely idealised today.

In accordance with his artistic ideals, Rubens added a "fully-developed", Baroque portico and studio, a semi-circular 'Pantheon' to house his art collection (one of the largest in Antwerpen at the time), and laid out a garden, all inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity and the Italian renaissance. The new structures gave the otherwise quite traditional 16th century residence the resemblance of an Italian palazzo, and were unequalled in Antwerpen at the time. The façade of the studio (where some 2,500 paintings were produced with the help of the artist's colleagues, assistants, and pupils) in particular demonstrates how the Rubens' stay in Italy influenced not only his paintings but also his ideas about architecture.

Notable among the rare paintings on display throughout the house are Adam and Eve, one of Rubens' earliest known works, finished before his departure for Italy in 1600, and his acquisition of his more familiar expressive style, as well as Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry, one of his last — and unfinished — paintings, revealing the technique and collective effort dedicated to its creation. Equally notable is one of only four self-portraits Rubens painted, dated to around 1630, when the artist was in his early fifties. Apart from its rarity, it also differs from, say, the many self-portraits of Rubens' contemporary Rembrandt, in that Rubens chose to present himself in the guise of the distinguished gentleman diplomat he mainly appeared to have thought himself as, rather than the painter — the Flemish Baroque master — which became his distinction.

After Rubens passed away, his second wife, Hélène Fourment (1614 — 1673) continued to live in the house, even renting it out between 1648 and 1660 to William and Margaret Cavendish, refugees of the English Civil War, who established a riding school there. Once the Cavendishes moved on, the residence was sold by Rubens' heirs. Largely ignored and subjected to various renovations, it was acquired by the city of Antwerpen in 1937 and, after a thorough restoration, opened as a museum in 1946. The reconstructed Baroque garden, restored in the 1940s, was completely relaid in 1993, leaving the portico and the garden pavilion as the sole authentic parts of the 17th century complex — though all the plants currently grown in the garden were known in Rubens' time, including sunflower, tulips, fritillaries (misionbells), and potato plant specimens imported from "the New World" as decorative plants.

A glass pavilion, designed by Stéphane Beel (with Maur Dessauvage and Laurent Ney), housing visitor facilities — such as reception, cloakroom, and shop — separate form the actual residence itself, was constructed on the Wapper in 1999. This elegant solution to the type of space-related problems similar museums face (most historically important residences not having been designed with streams of visitors in mind) allowed the Rubens' residence to remain largely unaltered. The elaborate style of the courtyard, with its myriad of symbolic details, also make it quite clear the the exterior of the residence — facing the Wapper — was of little interest to Rubens. The residence rather gives the impression of being inhabited by someone who enjoyed living surrounded by art and beautiful objects, but had little need or desire for obvious ostentation, and who certainly didn't fit the stereotype of a struggling artist.

(More images of Rubens House.)

Plane, trains, & automobiles.

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Edmonton International Airport isn't merely "Canada's largest major airport by area", and one of the country's fastest growing airports, it's also a lot closer to the city of Leduc than Edmonton itself. Even its areal claim is somewhat dubious, given that over half of the 7,600 acres (≈30.7 km²) originally purchased for the airport's development in 1955, have been leased back to the original owners who still cultivate it. Making the EIA the country's largest farm with attached airstrips. Though opened for passenger service in 1960, the original terminal building wasn't completed until three years later, and despite expansion in the late 1990s, further enlargement is underway to accommodate the 9 million passengers predicted to utilise the airport by 2012. Despite being a major port of entry into Canada, the EIA houses barely a dozen works of art — an indication perhaps of how much import the area's Canadians place on art. Among these, a mural by Jack Shadbolt — Bush Pilot in Northern Sky — stands out as the only surviving of four such works commissioned for the original terminal building.

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London's Victoria station, the city's second busiest railway terminus, is in fact four stations in one — two above ground and two underground. More so by chance than design, as it was cobbled together over time in a piecemeal fashion, it's two main overground railway stations remained physically separated until 1924. It began with — what to most passengers would appear as — two distinct stations, the London Brighton & South Coast Railway and the London Chatham & Dover Railway stations, opened in 1860 by a consortium of railway companies (The Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway Co.). The Metropolitan District Railway rapid transit station opened in 1868, and has now become the busiest station in the London Underground system, serving close to 80 million passengers per year. Despite several expansions over the past century, its often overcrowded platforms frequently operate as an exit-only station — a problem which a major upgrade is meant to solve by 2018. Like many of the other eighteen central London railway termini, Victoria station has frequently appeared works of popular culture, for instance in David Lloyd's and Alan Moore's 1980s comic-book series V for Vendetta, and as the place in which the titular protagonist of Oscar Wilde's 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest is discovered.

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London's black Hackney cabs are perhaps the most famous taxis in the world, particularly because of the specially designed vehicles and the extensive training course — The Knowledge — required of fully licensed drivers. However, many of the roughly 21,000 cabs in Greater London now are of practically every colour imaginable (especially when wrapped in advertising livery), as there is in fact no requirement for them to be black. Even the Austin FX4 model and its derivative successors that's dominated the city streets since the late 1950s have begun to be complemented by other models and makes, gradually incorporated into the fleet since 2008. Frequently voted the best taxi service in the world, the classic Hackney cabs (purportedly named for what once was the village of Hackney) have attained iconic status — undoubtedly aided by numerous incorporations into popular culture, lately as a venue for recording music.

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At the time of its opening in 1868 as the Midland Railway's Main Line's southern terminus, the St Pancras station was regarded as a pinnacle of Gothic Revival architecture. Its train shed — now named for its designer, William Barlow — with its characteristic Dent clock ranked as the world's largest single span roof, while its frontage — once the Midland Grand Hotel — earned it the moniker "Cathedral of Railway Stations". None of which saved the station from redundancy by the 1960s and the threat of demolition, the latter successfully opposed by in particular poet John Betjeman. After massive redevelopment — to the tune of some £800 million (≈C$1.3 billion) — it was re-opened as the London St Pancras International Railway Station in 2007. The lower levels of the original hotel (opened in 1873) are currently being refurbished to be operated by 2011 as a five-star hotel (including a brand new wing), while the upper levels are being converted into apartment lofts. The station's surroundings formed the backdrop of Alexander Mackendrick's 1955 black comedy The Ladykillers (far superior to the Coen brother's unnecessary 2004 remake), while the hotel (closed in 1935) was an integral part of Douglas Adams' 1988 novel about gods behaving badly in London, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (rather blatantly ripped off by Marie Phillips in 2007).

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At over 8000 km (≈4971 miles), the European Route 40 (E40) is the longest in the International E-road Network, running from Calais in France to Ridder in Kazakhstan. Though only a small section — some 49 km (≈30.4 miles) — connects Bruxelles with Gent, the amount of time it takes to travel can vary widely. Depending on the amount of traffic, weather conditions, and whether any of its six lanes is undergoing the seemingly perpetual maintenance, a trip by car between the two cities can take anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours. The assigned maximum speed limit on this stretch is set at 120 km/h (≈65 miles/h), but local drivers frequently indulge much higher speeds, not only compromising safety but directly contributing to congestion as well. Although given the importance this short stretch of road plays in the network as a whole, it's not difficult to believe the local claim that the reason for frequent congestion is the fact that in order to arrive anywhere in Europe one has to drive through Belgium.