Oct 16 – We are back on the beautiful main square.
The must-do thing for every tourist in Bruges is to climb the 366 steps to the top of the Belfort, or carillon bell tower. In addition to the entrance ticket, you also have to reserve a time to climb, and the automated response is, “we hope you are fit!”
Then it was on to the Stathuis, or City Hall, built in the 1300s, and still in use today.
Another lovely day.
Oct 15 – Today is Sunday, the day of the Brugge Marathon. We saw all the white tents and signs with instructions for the runners being assembled yesterday. Our plan was to go to the go to the art museum this morning to avoid the crowds.
Little did we know, but the marathon runners came right down our street! We weren’t permitted to cross the road, and ended up taking a detour of back streets, trying to get closer to the museum.
The Groeninge Museum has ten rooms, with the works grouped by time. The first, medieval room was full of Madonnas and funny looking babies that I feel compelled to share.
In the more contemporary rooms, these were my favorites
Back out on the street, there was a Sunday flea market. We scored a very nice, slightly used, plate for our wall.
Another glorious day!
Oct 14 – Back in 2008, Jim and I watched a movie called “In Bruges”. Since that time, I have wanted to visit this medieval city filled with history and gingerbread architecture. Now we are here!
As Bruges is in Flanders, where people speak Dutch, the name of this city is Brugge, pronounced sort of like BRUH-heh. The rest of the world uses the French Bruges, pronounced BREWJ, and so will I.
Our apartment is right on a canal, and we can watch the houseboats out our window as the bicyclists ride by.
We have an apartment with combination locks instead of keys. There is a keypad to open the bedroom door, and another to open the bathroom door!
We walked down to the main square.
Back on the street, we spied chocolate shops everywhere.
More excitement tomorrow!
Oct 12 – Today we visited the Grote Markt, to look at more beautiful buildings. This is the main square.
Inside the cathedral is a modern sculpture by Jan Fabre called “The Man Who Bears the Cross”. Unlike depictions of others weighed down by, or dragging a cross, this modern, bespectacled man is taking up and balancing the cross on one hand. How does he do it? Food for thought.
The sculpture in the middle of the street outside the cathedral depicts Nello and Patrache from A Dog of Flanders. An orphaned boy and abandoned dog befriend one another, until, homeless, they die together of hypothermia in the cathedral. This ain’t no Disney movie. Here they lie under a blanket of cobblestones.
Oct 13 – Today we planned to stroll out our door right over to the train station and jump on the first train to Bruges. Easy peasy, except….
There was a bomb scare at 7am, the station was evacuated, and no trains were running! It was the top story on the news!
The helpful station attendant could not tell us when the next train would be leaving, or when there would be a seat available due to all the stranded passengers. I asked if there was a bus to Bruges, and she looked up the bus schedule on her phone. There was a bus leaving in 20 minutes!
She programmed my phone to show us the bus station and told us to hurry, as we were supposed to pre-purchase tickets online. We high tailed it down the street and saw the bus marked Brugge, with a queue of passengers loading their luggage beneath. I accosted the driver and asked if we could buy tickets for this bus. He said yes, but only for cash. Did Jim have cash? Yes he did! We got the last two seats! How much excitement can two old folks stand?
Oct 11 – This morning we walked to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, also known as KMSKA – Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen. A mouthful.
The audio guide gave us the option of hearing about every single piece of art, which looked like it might take a few years, or following their selection of the 25 top artworks. We chose to find the top 25, sort of a treasure hunt, but we also meandered around to look at whatever called to us.
The rooms weren’t arranged by artist, but by theme. There was a room of Light, of Suffering, of Evil, of Impotence, etc. it was an interesting and different way to think about the art.
Of course, my favorite was the room of Madonnas with their various odd-looking babies:
We went to lunch at a nearby café, and had a spicy tomato soup and some bitterballen – fried balls of marinated shredded beef served with mayonnaise that are a specialty in this area. They were delicious!
We returned to look at some modern works. Many of the paintings selected for the audio tour were ones that I never would have stopped long to consider, but I’m glad we did.
A lot to see in one day! Hope you enjoy our ramble.
Oct 10 – We got on the bus this morning and rode for 23 stops to the town of Hasselt, Belgium. Once there, we hopped on a train that took us right to Antwerp.
I’ve always wanted to visit Belgium, home of the painter Peter Paul Rubens, ten different kinds of waffles, and hundreds of brands of beer. According to the Belgians, French fries were actually invented here, and their fries are better than anywhere in the world. And yes, they are served with mayonnaise, not ketchup.
They have three languages here, with 60% of folks in the north (Flanders) speaking a Flemish kind of Dutch, 40% in the south (Wallonia) speaking a Walloonish kind of French, and less than 1% in the west speaking German. We are in the north. This city is called Antwerpen here, and Anvers in the south.
We got off the train to find we were in the world’s most famous train station. It was pretty cool.
We have a lovely apartment right in the heart of the action, in the center of a block of restaurants. It smells good here!
We took a walk around our local area. It was pretty amazing!
Can’t wait to explore!
Oct 9 – This morning we put our boots on, and walked off to find the southern terminus of the Pieterpad. Even though we didn’t do all the hiking we originally planned, we thought we should climb the last hill.
We got to the foot of Mount Sint Pieter, and started up.
Before too long, we reached the summit, and looked around. No signs of the beginning or the end of anything. There were some trail markers, but the Pieterpad was not among them. What to do?
We trudged back down the hill, asking Google where we went wrong. No answers. At the foot of the hill was a café. We asked the proprietress, and she pointed across a very industrial-looking area. There was a path, so we followed it.
And so ended our Pieterpad and Netherlands adventure. Tomorrow, on to Belgium!
Oct 8 – As our hike from Valkenburg continued, we left the farmlands, walked through the suburbs…
…over a pedestrian bridge and about an hour into the center of the city of Maastricht. We maneuvered down a very crowded shopping street with upscale stores and lots of restaurants.
There were things to see, but my pack was getting heavier by the minute, so Jim took us right to our B and B, Chez Helene.
The funny thing about this country is that the small hotels we tend to frequent all call themselves B and Bs, but most do not serve breakfast. So what is the other B? We may never know. This one was even curiouser, as the advertised en suite did not actually have a separate bathroom. The toilet was right in the bedroom, with no door of any sort. Travelers can get used to anything, I guess!
So, after a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast from the nearby supermarket (coffee, hard boiled eggs, plain yogurt and fruit, and more coffee), we set off to see Maastricht.
We knew from our time in Valkenburg that the Basilica of St. Servatius was here.
Then we had a lovely café lunch and walked around town.
A very nice day!
Oct 7 – Today we bid adieu to Valkenburg, shouldered our packs and got on the Pieterpad for the hike to Maastricht. Although I’ve shown you plenty of wall art, here is some more as we walked out of town.
The day was perfect for hiking – cool and breezy. Maastricht is about eight miles away.
And just like that, we were in Maastricht, the biggest city we’ve seen since Amsterdam. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!
Oct 4 – I think this is the longest we’ve ever stayed in one town! As pretty as it is, we’re running out of things to see. We originally dismissed the idea of paying 15€ apiece to tour the ruins of the castle on the hill, as we could see most of it from the street. By today, however, that option was looking pretty interesting, so here we go!
I mentioned in a previous post that the original wooden castle only lasted for eight years in the 1100s. Stone versions were subsequently built up and knocked right down until the 1400s, when the ruins were allowed to remain ruins. Not much history to tell.
For the price of admission, we also got to tour the sandstone tunnels dug under the castle in about the 14th century.
The tunnels provided bricks for the rebuilding of the castle, and also provided a way for the castle inhabitants to escape unseen. Although the tour was only in Dutch, we enjoyed seeing the artwork carved into the soft stone.
In the 18th century, a subterranean chapel was carved out of the sandstone.
So, what do you think? As always, we learned something today, well worth the price of admission!
Taking Our Time 