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BRUGGE, BELGIUM: THE VENINCE OF NORTHERN EUROPE
August 30 - Sept 2, 2002
By Stef
After weeks of moving in and late nights flying we eagerly anticipated Labor Day weekend- a four day vacation! We had many destinations in mind, but settled on Brugge, Belgium (pronounced Broo-ga). We planned the holiday with our friends from Ft. Bragg, the Beebes' who are now stationed in Stuttgart.
We started off early Friday morning and promptly got lost. Gordon drove, I dozed and before we knew it we were over an hour past our autobahn connection! Grrrr! Not such a big deal unless you cannot just get off at an exit and turn around. As I have said before, you do not need to know directions here, only the town toward which you are headed. So as I scoured the map to a) find where we were and 2) find where we were headed, Gordon tried to find an exit that would actually get us back on the same road we had gotten off of!
We finally found Autobahn 4 and made it into Belgium. Thank goodness we were not vacationing in Luxembourg or we might have missed the country altogether. (Lux is quite small).
We got to Brugge in the late afternoon and found the guesthouse that we were staying at. Our accommodations consisted of a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a kitchen, living area and courtyard that was completely enclosed on all four sides by the rooms of the apartment.
Each morning our hostess, Tine, cooked us breakfast: juice, coffee, tea, 3-4 kinds of bread and rolls (whole grain rolls, plain and chocolate croissants, raisin rolls and sweet rolls) all fresh from the bakery. We also had fresh scrambled eggs, an assortment of meat and soft cheese, cold cereal for the children, and yogurt, and chocolate. Sounds good doesn't it? Then while we ate she went downstairs to her apartment and prepared our lunch. She returned with bag lunches for all 9 of us- bottles of water, Belgian waffle cookies and huge baguette sandwiches with meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato! While we were gone for the day she came in and cleaned up the breakfast mess. How awesome is that! And believe it or not it was only E 62.00 per night (that's roughly $62.00). She also charged us E 5.00 extra per kid for food. Not a bad deal!
Well anyway, Friday night we went to a restaurant that Tine recommended. The food was good, and we all ended up eating pasta. Afterwards we walked around a bit and listened to a live band playing. Alas, all the chocolate shops were closed. But we did find a candy shop that was open and bought some packaged chocolate. We found an interesting fountain that had, among other things, a reclining mermaid with water spurting from her mouth and nipples. Anabelle thought it was funny that she had water squirting from her “na-na's”
Saturday morning we again found our way to the center of town. We began our tour with a couple of churches. I have made it a point to light a candle and saying a prayer for my Grandmothers in every church and chapel we have gone into since being here. Sometimes the kids light one too.
By the way, speaking of churches, for those of you who find the pews back in the states uncomfortable, the churches here all seem to have these very tall straight backed chairs. The seats have a cushion sometimes but you definitely do not slouch in church!
Anyway, we continued on to the Belfry. We paid our $ and climbed all the way to the top. The stairs were INCREDIBLY steep and there was a rope hanging from the top instead of a hand rail. Since there are only one set of stairs, you had to press yourself against the wall as people going the opposite way squished past you. Anabelle climbed almost the entire way herself- almost 400 steps!! The view was worth the climb. The “view from above” on the picture page was taken here. We climbed back down when Anabelle became upset over the LOUDNESS of the bells as they began to ring while we were at the top!
We then hit a few lace shops, and of course, chocolate shops. You can see me in front of one of them on the picture page! Next on our list was the Balisca of the Holy Blood. This church possesses a crystal vial that contains the actual blood of Christ. http://www.trabel.com/brugge/bruges-holyblood.htm
We entered in time to see the Veneration of the Holy Blood and were able to actually kiss the vial as the priest held it.
Now we were trying to make this trip fun for the kids too, and wanted to do things other than bribing, (did I say bribing?) them with chocolates every few minutes. They offer carriage ride tours in Brugge, so that was next on our agenda. We waited patiently in line at the queuing point, behind a French family, only to continue waiting when people rushed up, cut in and clambered into the carriages as they drove up. Anyone who knows me knows that this didn't bother me in the slightest…… Anyway, the French guy and I agreed to make a dash for the next set of carriages that appeared. Two of them pulled into view with a third close behind. I grabbed the second one and was told only five people could ride in the carriage. I shoved five people in and jumped in the second carriage that Lisa had commandeered. I found myself riding with Lisa, Tim and Catherine. All was fine for about 30 seconds until it dawned on me that I didn't remember if I had actually shoved Anabelle in the other carriage with Gordon, Ben, Emily and Hannah Beebe. After looking around frantically and trying to peer into Gordon's carriage as it quickly disappeared around the corner, I realized she must have been in the carriage with him and I was just being obsessive.
The carriage ride was, well, quick. A guided tour it was not. Even if we could have heard the driver's voice over the galloping hooves of the horse, the heavy breathing of the horse from the carriage directly behind us would have drowned out the 3 comments he made anyway. (the horse behind us was so close he was pretty much pushing our carriage). We drove to the outskirts of town to 4 old windmills. We got out, climbed up the hill to get a closer look, (found Anabelle was indeed with Gordon) and climbed back into the carriage for a return trip. Apparently the object of the ride was to see which driver could get to and from the starting point in the shortest possible time. The kids thought it was awesome fun of course and it was.
By this time it was late afternoon and we had a date with some sidewalk chairs to see a parade. The Pageant of the Golden Tree, performed once every five years, to commemorate and celebrate the marriage of Margaret of York and Charles the Bold in 1468. http://www.whatsonwhen.lycos.com/events/event.asp?/events/~67035.jml
We had purchased some seats earlier in the day, (a good thing too), so we settled in and waited for the parade to get to us. The kids were delighted as the knights and ladies rode by. All the floats were pulled by the huge Belgian draft horses (no tractors of pick ups here my friends). There was an abundance of dogs, horses, a flock of sheep, falcons, donkeys and several camels. There was a float of a huge golden pheasant, a maiden in a castle, a dragon, and giants (before and after the beheading) and of course the golden tree itself complete with evil dwarf and fearsome ogre chained to it (see pictures).
After the parade (it was 2.5 hours long) we were all pretty hungry so we wandered around and found a café that offered a steak dinner. By the way, every place you eat in Belgium is expensive!!
Well, as Lisa and I industriously pulled three tables together to fit our crowd, Anabelle unbuckled herself from her stroller, ran behind a building, and across a busy street to the fountain we had seen the night before. I suddenly realized she was gone and FREAKED OUT (to put it mildly). Ben said she wanted to go to the fountain so as Gordon and I rushed off in that direction, Lisa and Tim scoured the immediate area.
I ran across the street and saw her (thanks to Gymboree and their noticeably bright clothing designs). I grabbed her and she started bawling immediately. The rest of the evening went well considering. Anabelle nursed and fell asleep immediately in her stroller and we were serenaded by a violinist and his companion accordionist.
Well that brought us to Sunday. The parade was being repeated Sunday afternoon, but we had other plans. We wandered through some parks on the edge of town giving the kids some time to stretch their legs and then found our way back to a different part of town we had not yet visited. We of course visited those lace shops and tried some of the chocolates from those chocolate shops as well. Brugge is primarily Flemish, so the lace shops sell tapestries as well. Lisa found a beautiful wall hanging of a knight in armor (one of the Knights Templar) that she purchased for her living room wall. I found a photograph of one of the bridges over the canal in an old shop. It was taken in 1919. Imagine my delight when during our next activity (a boat ride through the canals) I recognized the bridge from the picture!! The trees are still there though much bigger now, and the buildings overgrown with vines. After the boat ride we doubled back up to the bridge and took a picture to exactly match the one I had purchased. (3rd picture, second row)
We also visited another church, where we saw a sculpture by Michelangelo, called “Madonna and Child”. This is one of the only original sculptures by Michelangelo that is not in Italy.
By this point it was getting late so we found a crepery on our way back to the apartment. The kids enjoyed having crepes for dinner. Strangely enough, it occurred to me that since we were in Belgium, we should be eating Belgium waffles and save the crepes for France….
We went back to the apartment, gathered our jackets and headed for Zeebrugge, about 20K away. Here we walked and walked and walked and walked across the sand to the edge of the North Sea. It was very beautiful as we got there right at sunset.
The next morning the Beebes' left very early and we had to return home as well. After leaving Brugge however we stopped in Gent. Gordon's great grandfather came from Gent in the early 1900's. We stopped at a cemetery at the edge of town on a lark and found that the Vermeulens are as plentiful as water in Gent!! We found the center of town after driving for a while, (Gent is quite large) and visited the St. Jacob's Church. (see Gent picture page) We again, found ourselves in a chocolate shop, this time drawn in by the amazing chocolates in the window display. (see picture) They were shaped like acorns, nuts, ears of corn, etc. It was here that I tasted the best rum truffle of them all and the chocolate covered cherry I had was huge and filled to overflowing with cherry liqueur!
We left Gent around 1:30 pm and continued the long ride home. It was a remarkable experience and one that we all enjoyed. Our next plan is to go to Heidelberg this weekend for a Volksmarch. It is only about an hour away, but Heidelberg is reputed to have a beautiful castle so we will make sure to take pictures there as well!
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