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Day 13 - July 12, 2015 Bruges

Bruges day 2

We woke up rested after a very nice sleep in a comfortable bed. Although the view to the outside patio is marred somewhat by the sight of Rudi’s work pants drying.

As we didn’t want to incur Nicole’s wrath by wanting breakfast earlier than we had said, we waited until 945, wondering all the time when she was coming with the breakfast. Finally MLW knocked timidly on the living room door.

“Who is it?”

MLW thought she heard Nicole say this … it may have been something in Dutch or Flemish like “Come in stupid American”. MLW wondered who else Nicole might think it could be.

“Nicole, it’s MLW”

“Oh, ja, Come in, come in.”

‘We were wondering if we were supposed to come down or would breakfast be brought up to u …”

“… No, no, no, your table is much too small for eating. You come down, ja,ja, it is all ready here.”

So I came down as well and we had breakfast … unexpectedly with both Rudi and Nicole. Unexpectedly, only because of our first experience with a B&B, which had been run more like a hotel. In doing our preliminary research many B&Bs that we have booked appear to be mingled with the person’s residence and it would not be unreasonable to have breakfast together. The bonus is that it offers great opportunity to find out more about Bruges and local attractions, many of which we would never have found without Nicole’s knowledge and tips.

Fresh home baked bread, cheeses, assorted hams, yogurt, and fruit salad. Nicole had also just made rhubarb jam, which was very, very good. Rudi made us second cups of coffee and Nicole yakked about the history of Bruges and Belgium and gave us some very cool points of interest to check out: St. Annes church, the best lace shop in Bruges (“all the other ones are selling Chinese stuff; this one has old things made by women in Bruges many years ago…” said Nicole), a 500 year old pub, and an almost-as-old pub that still makes its own beer, which is hidden away down an alley most people walk right by.

St Annes church was our first stop; however, it was closed at this time for some reason. We could peer inside thorugh a large glass and read about it and the surrounding parishes history.

It took us a while to find the lace shop of which Nicole spoke, it is also a museum.

The work of the lace makers is stunning.

The proprietor told us the women making it had to do so in basements and in low light as the silk is so fine it is affected by light; the eyesight of many women was severely affected. When you see how tiny the strands of silk that they used were, you can understand why and certainly appreciate the bone-numbing work of making a piece. It takes weeks, months and years to create something large, which is why the real creations are so costly.

Feeling thirsty, we headed to a place Nicole had told us of.

On the Breidelstraat between the Market Square and Berg Square, between two chocolate shops is a tiny little alley...

You turn down this alley ...

And, walking on 500 year old cobblestones...

... you come to De Garre pub; where we had been told they brew a famous beer of the same name which contains 11% alcohol by volume (ABV). The pub owner will only allow any one visitor to order three beer. MLW scoffed at that, as where she had lived in Northern BC, there had been a beer brewer whose beer was also 11% and it wasn’t a Friday night if they didn’t drink a case...

Climbing up the narrow stairs and seated at a tiny table (which we discovered another day we were very lucky to get, as the place gets very busy), we confidently ordered two beer each. You can see the old beams and the open courtyard mezzanine area; each level had a bar.

We stopped after two glasses, as the narrow stairs down suddenly appeared to be more difficult to traverse.

Across the open mezzanine there was a group of men raising a ruckus. I was trying to place their accents, as it almost sounded like English, then it came to me… they were Yorkshiremen, and not speaking English at all … Well alright, it was English., but very hard for North American ears to understand. As my Dad was from Yorkshire, it fell on my ears fairly easily.

As they left, we hailed them and they told us that they were indeed from Leeds. Small world.

Before we left, I climbed up more stairs , only wobbling somewhat, to the top level, to see a banquet area.

Then it was back down and out into the alley, to carry on with our sightseeing.

I convinced MLW to go see the Torture Museum, which was horrifyingly interesting.

<Scroll past if you are at all squeamish>

I was particularly fascinated by the below depiction of a chastity belt for men.

There is an interesting moral story behind the below reproduction, which is gruesome, called The Flaying of Judge Sisamnes.

One of the important stops for MLW in Bruges was to see The Madonna, which is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, of Mary with the Child Jesus, recently made more famous by the movie Monuments Men, which told the story of the rescue of pieces of art which had been stolen from churches and museums and private homes by the Nazis as they retreated during WWII.

The Madonna had been a very important reclamation, was returned to Bruges and is displayed in The Church of Our Lady.

It was lunch time and Nicole had packed us a large lunch, telling us of a little 'secret garden' spot that few knew about, by a canal, which would be a lovely place to eat lunch.

We followed her direction, without which we would never have found the place, turned down an alley from the entrance of which we could see trees behind a gate at the end ...

The two girls who were already there asked MLW to be a photographer for them,

Which MLW was happy to do...

A very peaceful place, this secret garden even though it seemed people could see it from the street, and canal tours went right by...

We ate our lunch with swans eyeing us and then headed back out....

We went on a long walk to see Gentweg Poort, one of the ports/entrances to Bruges.

We continued our walk around the circumference of Bruges.

For dinner we went to the Café (Herberghe) Vlissinghe, a 500 year old pub, of which not much had changed décor-wise, apparently during its long history.

We could see why the pub was so old, as it took so long for service that turnover of customers would be much longer than normal and extend the life of the venue. But although the service left something to be desired, the food was very good, there was a cute little Jack Russell wandering around as part of the staff which kept us amused.

We returned to our B&B for a much needed shower and bed.

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