River Cruise 2015 - May 2 - Brugge, Belgium

Brugge, also known as Bruges - a fascinating Medieval city - the city of lace.  Bruges is a very large city that has a smaller historic city centre, which is a World Heritage Site of UNESCO, with most of its medieval architecture intact.  With its many canals, it is often referred to as the Venice of the North. 

This is one of the first lovely scenes to greet us after we had entered the city centre, an oval shaped area of about 430 hectares.  

Such a pretty fellow! 

There were a great many swans swimming in the canals - so lovely to see! 

A beautiful sight!  

 

  I loved seeing all the horses in Bruges - some with wagons like this one......  

 
.....some with carriages like this one.  They were all sharp shod, so you could always hear them coming behind you.  

We were treated to a canal boat ride all around the heart of the city, which was quite nice - a little crowded, but fun none the less. 

 

Here we are about to go under the oldest bridge - a tight fit! 

 

Not sure why the minarets or whatever they are called, but it's kind of an interesting cityscape. 

 
A very old establishment called....can you guess?  My guess is "The Golden Herring".

 

There were 3 similar statues around this little park.  A new meaning for riding "bareback"! 

I would love to know how old this old vine is - a Tarzan type vine for sure! 

This very ornate structure was squeezed into a very narrow alleyway! 

 


I think this may have been on the other side of that alley. 

You cannot be in Bruges and not eat a waffle!  It was covered in so much chocolate.....my mouth is watering, just thinking about it!  We were covered in chocolate and icing sugar! 

 

This is The Church of Our Lady, whose brick spire reaches 401.25 feet, making it one of the world's highest brick towers.  Inside, after paying 3 euros to enter the "museum" side, I found the sculpture by Michelangelo, called "Madonna and Child" (1504-5).

The Madonna and Child is thought to be the only sculpture to have left Italy within Michelangelo's lifetime.  It is carved in Carrara Marble. 

This cool fountain was actually a horse trough, where the horses, which were lined up behind it, were able to drink. 

Okay, now the sad story.  The Belfry, right, is Bruges' most famous landmark, built in the 1200's.  It houses a 48 bell Carillon, which is rung regularly by the full-time carilloneur.  This is where we were all to gather at 3 p.m. to walk back to the buses.  We got a little turned around in the city, but arrived at 3 p.m. by our watches.  Unfortunately, the clock in the belfry was 5 minutes ahead of ours.  Thinking all were there, the group began its trek back to the buses - without us.  :-(  When we could not find anyone, we did what we were supposed to do, which was call Jeremy's cell phone # (a kind soul did that for us), and it went to answering mode.  Not helpful!  Jeremy had given his phone to Albertus while he went in search of flowers for a cemetery we were visiting later.  Albertus didn't answer - guess he didn't hear it ring in his pocket.  We were desperate, not knowing where the buses were or where the boat was going to meet us.  About a half hour later, we found someone to call again, and this time Albertus picked up, and sent Lena to get us.  It was a very tense time for us!  But the plan to call did work, once it was answered - too bad we lost that half hour before it worked!   That evening, we had a guest speaker on board, but I was so exhausted (emotionally mostly, I think) that I went straight to bed after dinner.    

 When finally back on the bus, we stopped at another war cemetery, Adegem Canadian War Cemetery, where Heleen and Lena (our rescuer in Bruges) laid some flowers on the cenetaph. 

Apparently some of Jeremy's favorite things to see are steam trains, and we saw one on the bus ride back to the boat.  Just think, Jeremy, if you hadn't had to wait for us, we would have missed it!





                                     .......until next time......