Belgian waffle | Taking Our Time

Oct 17 – This is our last full day in Bruges. Every morning we see something new.

We visited the Gruuthuse Museum, which shows what an upper class home from the 15th century looked like, and houses a diverse collection of this and that.

Some of the illustrated manuscripts were quite gruesome

Belgian lace was incorporated into ladies bonnets

In one room, you could look through a window to see the inside of the church next door – it looked beautiful!

So, we went next door to visit the Church of Our Lady.

This church had Gregorian chants playing throughout, which made it sound like monks were working hard nearby, and made everything feel peaceful and holy.

The sanctuary looks much like it did in the 1500s

Here is the window we saw in the museum, that enabled the rich family to observe what was going on in the church

There were some things we hadn’t seen before.

Tombs with decorations on the inside – images of heaven to help the deceased get where they were going

A painting of the Last Supper where they served bread, wine and… chicken?

Now, you know I’ve saved the best for last. This church holds the Madonna of Bruges, the only statue by Michelangelo that left Italy during his lifetime. It depicts Jesus not as an infant, but a toddler standing on his own, and Mary looking down sadly.

The piece is not life size, and small enough to transport. It was taken by Napoleon to Paris, returned after his defeat, then taken by Hitler‘s men to Germany, where it was recovered and returned by the Monuments Men.