We just spent an
amazing day in the
b-e-a-yew-tiful city of Bruges, Belgium! I think I'm in love because I just want to go back again, and again, and again! Everywhere you look there are old (really old!) brick buildings, churches and monuments, intricate statues, a luscious canal, cobbled streets. To get a good idea of what we saw, check out the section about Bruges in this Rick Steve's Europe episode here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/90676/rick-steves-europe-belgium-bruges-and-brussels. You can search the Internet for professional photos of this historic city and check out Bruges' official website to learn more (
http://www.brugge.be/internet/en/index.htm). I want to share with you an account of our visit there and images that meant the most to us.
The night before our trip Adam and I were up (way too late!) getting everything packed and ready. We knew that whatever we would bring would have to be packed around by us for the whole day, so we tried to pack light. Ha! That's next to impossible with two kids, especially when one is still in diapers and drinks about a quart of milk each day! And, since Bruges is in Belgium and only 12 miles from the coast, we also had to bring rain gear. Oy! Anyways, we did our best and managed to pack everything into two backpacks. I wanted to have two strollers as well, but our second one was too big to take with us. I went next door and asked our neighbor if she had one. She didn't, but was very concerned for us. I told her it was ok and headed back home. Around 10:30 that night, after the kids were in bed and we were finishing our packing, she showed up at our home on her bike with a stroller she borrowed for us from one of her friends. Oh, the Dutch are so helpful!! Finally, we were ready and could get to sleep (around midnight, yikes!)
The alarm clock went off at 5 am, and we woke up (a hard task after getting less than 5 hours of sleep!). After getting ourselves ready, finishing the packing, and rallying the kids, we were ready to leave and make the 6:40 train. Unlucky for us, the kids were refreshed and completely awake, which made any dreams Adam and I had of sleeping during our 3 hour train ride vanish. Ah, well =)
The train arrives in Bruges around 10 am. Adam and I agree that we have too much stuff and decide to stash a backpack and a stroller in one of the lockers. We keep the one Andrea brought us because it's far better than the little umbrella stroller we have. It's overcast; the umbrellas stay with us. The sunscreen can be ditched, as can the 2 Dutch language books (what was I thinking packing those). We off-load as much stuff as we can to lighten the one bag we will be taking. With the stuff stashed, we continue onward, hopping a bus to the Markt Square.
Oh, my! The square is breathtaking. My eyes can't focus on any one single thing. There are horse-drawn carriages and vending carts, awnings covering open-air dining tables, people scurrying around under umbrellas. There's a big statue in the middle, and the buildings surrounding the square are... indescribable! Wikipedia has a beautiful panoramic image of the square on their website. Do check it out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markt_(Bruges)
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| The statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, who led the Bruges Matins, a violent uprising against Philip the Fair. Here, they are looking toward France, defending their Flemish way of life from French dominance. |
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| Beautiful! I used several shots and lots of Photoshopping to make this image. I'm kinda proud of it =) |
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| The Belltower, or, Belfort. And Yes! It is leaning, 4 feet, actually! |
There was kind of a perfect storm of events that got us to this point today. First, back in the fall of 2010, we were anxiously awaiting possible orders to Europe. Could we truly actually possibly have a chance of living there for 3-4 years?!?!?! Also, in an effort to reduce our spending, we had ditched all cable and satellite TV for Netflix and free TV, which led us to watch more PBS than ever before. One day Adam was browsing through our limited channels and saw a program: Rick Steves' Europe. He was intrigued. The very first episode we watched was Bruges and Brussels. We fell in love and worked that much harder to get ourselves over to Europe! Fast forward: we're in Europe, and we're being personally guided around by Rick Steve's via his guide book for Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels. One thing he notes is that if we want to climb the Belltower, we had best do it before 11 am. Boy howdy, was he right!!!!
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| Just above the entrance to the courtyard |
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| The courtyard |
The Belltower is awesome! It's tall and old, with an inner courtyard and 366 steps to get to the top. After hiding the second stroller, we pay our monies and head up. Adam walks up first with Zach strapped to him, and I help Rachael. Thank you, so much, Rachael, for being such a trooper and needing very little carrying!!!
The first set of steps isn't so bad. They're wide and go up a short ways to a little museum-like room. The pieces in it are really cool. There are some old hands for the clock, the old keyboard (loose term) used to 'play' the bells, and a miniature replica of the tower itself and another of the bell system. It's just some really cool stuff.
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| Old clock hands. I wish I'd taken this pic with a body in it for perspective. The minute hand was about as tall as a person. |
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| This is what the musician plays to make the bells ring. He uses his fists and feet to pull the strings that move the dongles that strike the bells above. |
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| This is a miniature replica of the bell system. |
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| These are some super cool, really old, hand-made grates to something somewhere =) |
We continue up the stairs. Oh, boy, they're getting narrower. Two people passing is becoming a challenge. The people going up seem to have the right of way. Those descending cram them selves into a corner to wait for us to pass.
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| The courtyard, from higher up. |
We keep going up. I only get a claustrophobic feeling once on a particularly long stretch of stairs. Rachael is starting to get tired. The steps are very narrow. I ask the people coming down, "How much further?" "Quite a ways. You know you're getting close when you see the wooden steps." Rachael doesn't want to go up any more. Going down would be hard because there are so many people coming up. I'm only slightly panicking. My amazing husband picks her up, still carrying Zach, and takes them
both up the steps. Wow! I love you, Adam!! We finally get to another stop. We're behind the clock face, now.
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| Gears for the clock hands |
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| Clock workings |
Ok, now there are only 33 more steps to go to get to the very top. These are the narrowest stairs. There is no sucking it up to let another person pass. Single file only!! We can do this!!! We do, and the climb is so worth it! The view is breathtaking!
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| Distances and directions to major cities and landmarks form this point. |
Inside the belfry above us are the bells. We are lucky (?=) enough to be up there when the bells play. Wow! They were so
loud!! Have a listen for yourself:
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| Big bell! |
As we're starting our way back down, we catch a glimpse of the man behind the music =)
Honestly, going down was almost as hard as going up. I took Zach for the return trip, making managing those very narrow steps far more difficult. I can't look down to see where my feet are because there is a big, fat baby head in my way =) But, we make it, all of us. When we get to the bottom, we see that the line to go up is
loooooong. The people waiting see us coming back, worn out, verbally expressing how glad we are to have made it, and they're looking at us with expressions saying "Should we really do this?" Thank you, Rick Steves, for telling us to go early. I don't know if I would have survived that one claustrophobic event if the tower had had many more people in it!!
We head to the courtyard to take a potty break. What the...?! Now, I'd heard of this before, but, wow, so silly! We had to pay 30 Euro cents per person to use the potties! My goodness! =) So, while I was waiting with Rachael for Adam, I took a few pictures of the back of the tower to make this picture:
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| We were up there! |
Well, now that we had
that particular experience under our belt, we continued on with a less demanding activity =) Rick Steves is always talking about leaving the major areas and really getting to know a place by seeking out its less busy areas. So, that's what we decided to do. Our book showed us the way to a little out-of-the-way lace shop and some neat old windmills. We walked for about 20-30 minutes through the streets of Bruges to find these little spots. Along the way, we passed rows and rows of beautiful buildings, found Burg Square, and even the fish market (stinky!) and some market vendors.
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| One of the very many carriages in the streets. We saw a couple draft horses pulling larger carts, but I missed pictures of them. While these horses and carts looked beautiful, and the sound of their hooves clacking against the stones was captivating, I couldn't help but feel bad for these horses. |
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| At the end of the fish market were a few other vendors. We bought for Rachael and Zach the little doggy on the lower left corner. Rachael loves it and has been pulling it around now for the last two days =) |
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| Entering Burg Square. I wish I knew what these buildings were. I know this one is important! |
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| To the left is the back side of the previous picture. The building with the tower behind it is the City Hall, and the one to the right is the Old Recorder's House. |
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| The Basilica of the Holy Blood. We didn't see this, but it had golden statues outside and is said to house drops of the blood of Christ. If we come back to Bruges, this will definitely be on our list of places to see! |
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| Walking toward the lace shop, which has the ivy on the wall and a small sign hanging above the door. Hard to make out. |
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| Walking around, waiting for the lace shop to re-open. |
We arrived at the lace shop about 5 minutes before it closed for lunch. So, we decided to come back later. In the meantime, we thought we'd try to find the windmills we'd seen on TV once.
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| We're heading in the right direction!! |
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| So cool!! I loved how these were painted with the white and red and blue. |
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| Looking out from the hill of the first lighthouse we found. |
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| Looking over at the second lighthouse. |
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| Oh, blast my camera!!! This photo was to compare and contrast the old and the new. Behind the trees to the left were some of those really new, really huge windmills that dot the landscapes here. The old wooden windmill used to pump water back in the old days; the new ones capture energy for today's world. |
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| Ok, we've seen one windmill, and we want to walk up to the other one. Oh, wait a minute. We're in the midst of a minor deluge of rain! It's lunchtime; Zach's hungry, the water's pouring down. We have our umbrellas, and we bunker down on a mostly wet park bench under a tree and wait out the store. Zach gets fed, and we stay less wet. |
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| When we were walking to the bench, Adam said something about hearing the locks working. So, while we're sitting on the bench waiting out the storm, we get to watch a huge barge make its way up the canal. Cool. |
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| Eventually, the rain stops, and we get to see the other windmill. We're supposed to be able to tour this one, but the gate's closed today. |
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| Oh, clever. Here we are, looking back at the first windmill we visited =) |
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| This is so cool. Lace is a big thing over here. They even incorporated it into the fence. Seriously, that is wire twisted around into a lacy design. So cool! |
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| This is what the skies looked like all day. A storm would come in, do its thing, and leave, making way for blues skies again. |
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| Neat building =) |
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| The back of the windmill. Neat to see. Now, we're off to the lace shop! | | |
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| A WWI memorial we saw waiting for the lace shop to open. |
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| Still tooling around, seeing neat building, waiting for the lace shop to open. |
When we arrive at the lace shop again, the lady is just opening the door and setting our her things. As we walk in, all I think of are my mom and her friends, my grandmas, my aunts, all those crafty ladies. They would have
loved this little shop, especially Grandma Drury. I remember when she used to crochet doilies. What would she think of these beautiful laces, all of the spools of thread? The place was small. We were really hoping to get to see some ladies actually making the lace. We did not. That was kind of a bummer. But, we did talk to the person who runs the store as she was delicately folding and wrapping my selected purchase. She doesn't do any of the lacework herself and instead mostly attaches other women's lacework delicate fabrics. She was very sweet.
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| In the window |
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| Huge lace doily. This was very impressive!! |
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| A work in progress. |
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| Box of spools |
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| The sweet lady at 't Apostelientje, wrapping my doily |
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| My lace =) |
So, with our lace purchase in hand and our little side trip over, it was time to head back to the centrum, find some food, and do some more touristy things.
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| Some cool buildings we saw on the way back to Markt Square |
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| I took a picture of this because I thought it was funny with all its beer-sign lamps and sign saying "The Best Place in Town." Apparently, it's a pretty good place. It's the Charlie Rockets Hostel and Restaurant, and Rick Steve's recommends it =) |
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| Coming back into Burg Square, Rachael had to walk through this tunnel =) |
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| Back in Burg Square |
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| Still cool, whether you've seen it once, twice, a thousand times! |
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| Neat angle |
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| Back at Markt Square |
Our main priority right now is to eat. It's 1:30, and we're starving. There are little shops all over Markt Square serving frites and ice cream. The square is lined with Brasseries (casual restaurants). Food is everywhere. I want to just get something quick right there, but Adam wants to check out a waffle place noted in Rick Steves' book. I'm so glad we held out!!
From the Belltower, we head West along St. Amandstraat to Geldmundstraat. Across from the recommended Gelateria Da Vinci is the corner shop Laurenzino Waffles. I'm so sorry for everyone standing in line with us. Zach is now very tired and just won't fall asleep (he never goes down easy). He's screaming and crying, but, dang it! We want waffles!! We get to the front of the line and place our orders. Rachael gets a plain waffle. (oh, I hate calling it that, because no waffle in Belgium is ever 'plain.' They are art, raised with yeast, cooked with sugars, made with love!) Adam's has warm cherries with chocolate sauce. I get the one with strawberries and cream, covered in chocolate sauce, and dusted with powdered sugar. Now, let's talk a little about the chocolate sauce. This ain't no Hershey's syrup! That would be a sin! We're talking about a rich, smooth, warm, oozy, deliciousness that seemed too good to be serving on a street corner!! These waffles were so good, chewy, sweet, chocolatey, heavenly. Truly, this was the best waffle I have ever eaten!!
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| Waffles, waiting to be enjoyed! |
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| My waffle, my delicious, heavenly, wish-I-could-have-had-8-more-waffles waffle |
The waffles were delicious (and
that's an understatement!). But, we're still hungry. We head back to Markt Square. On the way back, we see a display in a chocolate shop's windows. It was just plain awesome!!!! You can make up your own captions, if you want to, or just enjoy the odd variety of molded chocolate, like we did =)
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| It was still too early in the day to be buying our chocolate, so we did not get ours from here. Thanks for the show, though! |
At the square, Rachael and I hang out by the statue while Adam goes and gets some friets. I take a couple of pictures of Rachael while we're waiting. Then, we see a commotion going on in the square. A group of kids, dressed up in odd costumes, are running around asking people if they speak French or English or anything and if they would be willing to sing their national anthem, or at least make a lot of noise with them. It looks like boys versus girls, the loudest group wins. I don't know. It was silly, though, and entertaining. They sing their songs, loudly, off key, a few measures apart from each other. I don't know who won, but they finish and all hop on their bikes and ride off, like they're on a scavenger hunt through the city. It looked like fun =)
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| Rachael, a tourist, and a ham! |
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| The statue, again =) |
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| Cute, Rachael and the statue =) |
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| A local denizen of the square |
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| The boys. The guy in pink behind the one with a blue hoodie and rolled up pants was in all pink, with white on his cheeks, and a long pink tail on his back!! |
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| The girls |
So, after a nourishing lunch of waffles and frites (which had the best andalouse sauce we've had yet =), we headed down to the canal for a boat ride. It was lovely. Zach was sleeping in his carrier on his dad. The weather was nice. The vantage point was unique. Here are a few pics from that little trip:
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| This statue was on the bridge over the canal just above where we got on our boat. |
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| Another market |
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| An old hospital, in full use until the 1980's |
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| More of the hospital |
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| Ducks and geese |
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| A goose with her week-old goslings |
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| Some ducks |
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| Little black duck ducklings |
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| More of the hospital after we turned around. |
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| I didn't quite catch what the guy was saying about this except that those windows were really old. |
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| The Church of Our Lady. Wow! |
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| Check out those flying buttresses! |
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| I loved this tower all covered in ivy. |
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| Look in the window =) |
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| One of the very few wooden facades. Neat. |
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| Just a statue |
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| Apparently this dog lays in this window most days, just lays there, paying no attention to all the tourists yelling at him, trying to get him to move =) |
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| These buildings are so red because they used cow blood to paint them |
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| Blood building |
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| Neat buildings along the canal |
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| Very old building, building in 1675, for sale. |
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| Ha hahaha! People on Segways!! =) |
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| Purple building? |
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| Cute little dock along the canal |
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| Fun statue |
The canal ride was very nice. We saw a lot of the town from a great vantage, all while planted on our bottoms, resting our weary feet, just what we needed. It's a touch after 4, and our day is winding down. We had planned to stay in Bruges until the last train to get us home would leave, which was around 8 pm. The kids certainly won't hold out that long, and we're getting pretty pooped. So, Adam and I decided to hit just one more place and then call it a day. I sure am glad we didn't give up just then, or we would have missed the most beautiful church we have ever seen, and even a Michaelangelo statue.
The church is called the Church of Our Lady. It has everything an old European church should have: paintings, statues, flying buttresses, vaulted ceilings, relics, stained glass windows, the works. It is all just stunning. I remember walking into the Tongren Basilica and feeling like my breath was literally taken away, as if I shouldn't even be allowed to be in such a holy place in the presence of such historical art. I felt that same way walking into the Church of Our Lady, only ten times more. I couldn't take pictures of everything in there, mostly because every where my eyes fell was something very photo-worthy. Also, I had started the day with fresh batteries, yet they were beginning to fail. So, we walked around, took a few pictures, admired what we could, and then left. This church deserves to be explored more thoroughly, more reverently, and if we ever get back to Bruges, we will give it, and ourselves, the time it deserves. To see some wonderful photos of this church, please visit:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/belgium/church-of-our-lady-photos/index.htm. Otherwise, please enjoy what I have here:
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| The tower |
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| At the entrance to the church |
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| A very large painting, about 5-6 feet tall |
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| There was so much art and history in each of these little nooks. |
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| The very high vaulted ceilings |
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| Too amazing. |
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| In the marble floor near the Madonna and Child |
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| The Madonna and Child by Michaelangelo. This statue is the only one by him to leave Italy during his life. |
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| The stained glass windows were so detailed and intricate. Wow. |
This is a beautiful wooden pulpit that my pictures do no justice for. Wow, wow, wow.
This crucifix is high above the main altar. The lighting was poor, but the effect of some adjustments in Photoshop made it look kind of neat.
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| I don't even know what this was sitting below the stained glass windows. But, well, just look at it! |
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| There are many tombs/catacombs under the church, with murals on the walls. Wow. |
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| Looking down into the tombs. |
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| Beautiful grates |
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| The tombs of a father and a daughter, the last rulers of an empire |
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| The pulpit |
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| The pulpit |
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| The nave, with the altar at the front, the crucifixion hanging above it, lined with statues of saints, with the pulpit to the right. Truly awesome. |
When we came to Europe, we envisioned ourselves visiting old, beautiful, Gothic churches such as the Church of Our Lady. We were not disappointed with our first visit to one of these spectacular temples of religion and history. We truly do want to come back and further investigate this church, but that will be for another time. For now, our day is ending. We have one last thing to do before we get back on the bus and the train. That is: to go buy some chocolate!
Again, Rick Steves guided us to a fantastic chocolate shop just off the main drag. There are several Dumon chocolate shops, but his book told us that, to get the full effect, we should visit the one just to the North-East of the Markt Square on EierMarkt 6. What an absolutely quaint little shop! My camera was completely dead by the time we got here. Oh, I wish it wasn't. This place was cute, full of colorful boxes and bags, chocolates everywhere. Rick Steves knows what he's talking about!! I was surprised to see so many molded chocolates. I went with some of my girlfriends back in Utah to the chocolate shop of The Little Chocolatiers, a show on TLC about a chocolate shop in Salt Lake City run by dwarves. Their hand-made chocolates were not molded, and I guess I just assumed that good chocolates weren't made in molds. Wrong-o! As described in the book: "Bruges' smoothest, creamiest chocolates are at Dumon." We bought the 750 gram box with one of each of their chocolates in it. What an splendid treat!!! There were horses and roses and swans and presents; white, dark, and milk chocolates; all filled with delicious, smooth, creamy goodness, from peanut butter and hazelnuts to coffee and fruits and liquors, and so much more! Adam and I shared them together, both of us getting a bite of every chocolate. We decided that there were none we didn't like. I even liked the milk chocolate (which we bought a bar of. Wow!), and he even enjoyed the dark chocolates. Honestly, I could go on and on and on, raving about this tiny little shop and the wonderous treats it produces, but, I won't. Instead, you can go check out their website at
http://www.chocolatierdumon.be and see what our little box of chocolates held =)
So, the kids are bushed, our feet are tired, and we're ready to call it a day. We have our little wooden doggy toy, our lace, and our chocolate. It's time to head home. We catch the bus back to the train station, and then hop our train back home.
Finding a seat on the train is difficult. We only had a few minutes to catch the train or wait an hour for the next one. First, we get on the first class cars and have to make our way back to the second class cars. Those ones are chock full of people, all heading to Brussels, which we'll be passing through. Instead of spreading out on 4 seats like we did on the way over, we end up sitting next to a dad and a boy, sharing four seats between us. But, hey! We're lucky! Many people end up standing during the half hour ride to Brussels.
We stop a few times in Brussels. The train offloads some people, more get on. Finally, the whole place clears out as we start to leave the city. The rest of the ride back home is uneventful.
We're tired and bushed and hungry. So, we stop by Tekin on the way back from the Tongeren station and get a pizza and schotel. Then we head home and totally decompress, happy for a fantastic day in Bruges, but glad to be at home, sitting on our bottoms, resting our weary feet and bodies. What a fantastic day in Europe! Maybe, we can do this again some time =) Until then, Ta ta!
