High Times in the Low Countries, Part 2: Bruges

Bruges (or Brugge, depending on whether you use the French or Flemish spelling) has garnered a reputation for being a well-preserved Medieval city, with additional recent fame due to the film In Bruges. It’s an easy day trip from Brussels (about an hour by train) so that’s what Janét and I did.

After alighting from the train, we strolled toward the center of town through the grounds of the Begijnhof, a convent (as always, click any photo to enlarge and enhance):



And just in case you thought it wasn’t a “real” convent, here’s a nun (I think she was trying to go fast enough to get airborne):


Our route continued through a small but charming square called the Simon Stevinplein:


And finally we arrived at the Grote Markt. This is the main square, the heart of Bruges, and it is vast. Much like the Grand Place in Brussels it is surrounded by many beautiful and historic buildings. They even share the same name: Grote Markt is the Flemish equivalent of the French Grand Place:





This famous landmark on the square is the Belfort (belfry), built around 1240:


This is the more recent (1887—recent by Bruges standards!) Provincial Court building:


Here’s a close up of the statue in the center of the Grote Markt. I don’t know what it commemorates but the guy on the right sure looks suspicious:


There’s an ancient passageway between two of the buildings called “Blind Donkey Alley” (no idea why) which takes you to another square directly adjacent to the Grote Markt, called Burg. It is of a much smaller scale but quite charming, with a few beautifully ornate buildings:







Black and white statue photograph!!:


Belgium in general—and Bruges in particular—is famous for its lace, hand-tatted by little old ladies. Here’s Janét inspecting some wares:


Belgium is also famous for their frites, often served in a cone with mayonnaise. We stopped at a frites place so I could get some…but they gave them to me in a plastic container. I was very disappointed but was too embarrassed to ask for a cone…but Janét, being the wonderful friend she is, demanded that the salesman put the frites in one for me. And he did!:


Bruges is a city of canals; at one time that was the only mode of transportation:



Toward the end of the day we took a boat ride along the canals as the sun began to set. It was beautiful, but the most entertaining part of the ride was our captain/guide. First of all, Bruges is in the Flemish region of Belgium, and it does have a slightly different “flavor” than the more Franco-centric Brussels. And I guess it has something to do with the language but our tour guide rolled his r’s for about 3 minutes each, as in: “Zees buildink is verrrrrrrrrrry old, zee oldest vun in Brrrrrrrrrrruges.” At one point we passed a brewery and he went off on a small tirade about why Belgian beer is the best. “Beerrrrrrrrrrr should be bitterrrrrrrrrrr. German beerrrrrrrrrrrs, French beerrrrrrrrrrrs…zey are not bitterrrrrrrrrrr the way a beerrrrrrrrrrr should be bitterrrrrrrrrrr. Belgian beerrrrrrrrrrrs re goot because zey are bitterrrrrrrrrrr!”:





After we alighted the boat (that seems to be my S.A.T. word of the day), we wandered back past some of the sights we’d already seen in the golden glow of the setting sun and then the night lights:






Before returning to Brussels we had dinner on the Grote Markt, where I enjoyed a giant—and, yes, bitterrrrrrrrrrr—Belgian beer:


Then it was back to Brussels to pack our bags and prepare to leave for our final adventure…Amsterdam!

BUT FIRST…A BRIEF TRIBUTE...


The inimitable and indomitable Bea Arthur passed away on April 25, 2009 at the age of 86. Whether as Dorothy Zbornak…

…or Maude Findlay…

…or on Broadway in the original casts of Fiddler on the Roof, The Threepenny Opera, and her breakthrough role as the inebriated Vera Charles in Mame…

…she brought generations 5-feet-9.5-inches of gravel-voiced pleasure (click to play):


See you in Amsterdam!!

High Times in the Low Countries, Part 1: Brussels

I know, I know, I’m behind. So here’s the first installment of my lovely trip to Belgium and the Netherlands with Janét!

Our first stop was Brussels. Many people, when I told them I was going to Brussels, said greeted that news with a resounding “eh”. And while it might not be Europe’s greatest city, I have to say that I actually liked it a lot. It was very charming and manageable.

Flying there meant flying—dare I say?—coach!! After being spoiled in business class on business trips I was dreading it. But truth be told, it wasn’t horrible. The one thing I expected to miss was the free booze, which helps both my nervousness and my ability to sleep. So in order to maintain this feature and not run afoul of the “3 ounce” rule, I brought some shampoo bottles filled with booze! And I kept them in the seat pocket, calling it “the bar”. It don’t get classier than that:


Also, was it just coincidence that on the flight to Brussels they served us…Brussels?:


Once we were safely in Brussels, we took a nap and then headed out to the city’s most famous place (literally): La Grand-Place (Grote Markt in Dutch in this officially bilingual city—although generally French does prevail, and that’s why the Flemish are always on the brink of seceding…but I digress). It is a wide-open area surrounded by many beautiful and varied façades, mainly built in the 17th Century. It’s even a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The square is dominated by the City Hall, built in the 1400s, which is on the left in the first photo (as always, you can click any photo to enlarge and/or enhance the colors):






Our next stop was Brussels’ other most famous attraction, the Manneken Pis. Yes, this is a classy statue of a little boy peeing. Despite this dubious subject matter, he is so well-respected that he gets little costumes on holidays and it is tradition that all world leaders, when visiting Belgium, bring as a gift an example of their national dress in the Manneken Pis’ size—and 600 of these costumes are now on display in the City Hall:


Here’s Janét—you can see how surprisingly tiny it is for such a famous symbol (the statue, not Janét):


Janét made me do this:


We continued out walking tour of Brussels with the ornate Bourse (stock exchange):



And while there was nothing to see at this time, I had to check out the opera house, called The Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie because it was built on the site where the mint once stood:


In time for dinner we headed over to the Rue des Bouchers, an ancient maze of narrow cobblestone streets that mainly contains seafood restaurants. Each restaurant sets up an elaborate display and waiters stand outside to lure customers. It’s all very touristy but fun (even for those of us who don’t love seafood):





We did stop at one restaurant for “moules frites”—mussels and French fries—despite unfortunate electrical outages that put “ASS” in their name. Well, Janét had moules frites. I probably had a hot dog:


And then, of course, some Belgian dessert—chocolate and/or waffles:


The next day we started out visiting the royal palace:


It’s lovely but seemed a little bit like it had seen better days (apologies to King Albert II). This perception was not helped by the fact that the guards looked like they had spent a little too much time guarding the royal donuts:


Or the fact that there was an old hubcap out front:


The Church of St Jacques-sur-Coudenberg:


Our next stop was the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. We only went to the Museum of Ancient Art, which contains many masterpieces up through the 19th century. It’s a lovely building surrounding an atrium:



Janét admiring a grand canvas:


“The Flood” by Kessels (you know I love to take me some B&W statue photography):


Another statue by this same Kessels character, “The Discuss Thrower”. I actually prefer this is color because it was set nicely in front of Jacques-Louis David’s final masterpiece, “Mars Disarmed by the Three Graces”:


Finally, although this statue was backlit by a window, I decided to embrace the overexposure and came out with this interesting effect:


Janét admiring another famous work by David (my favorite artist, incidentally—who actually died in Brussels), “The Death of Marat”:


I enjoyed the unfortunate juxtaposition of this sign and this work of art. I mean it’s not the greatest painting I’ve ever seen, but is it really that disturbing? (click to enlarge if you can’t read it):


Then again, these next few works really were somewhat disturbing:




Let me go no further without mentioning the “Top 10”. The only travel books Janét brought were “Top 10 Brussels” and “Top Ten Amsterdam”. These books tell you the top 10 things to see, with a complicated system of sub-top-10s and topical top 10s and the such. Janét was often obsessed with checking off all 10 items on a given list. At the museum that meant searching high and low for the #10 painting on the list. And after all that…it was gone!:


Next we visited Brussels’ main church, the Cathedrale Saints Michel et Gudule:


The edifice was very ornate with many strong characters:



This guy looks like the Moses in our old Haggadah:


Of course the interior was striking as well:







Our last stop of the day was La Place des Martyrs. It’s an old city square where more than 400 Belgians were killed during the Belgian Revolution of 1830 (when Belgium won its independence from the Netherlands). They didn’t know what to do with all the bodies so they buried them on the spot, eventually erecting this underground crypt and soaring monument:




More B&W statue photography!:


Then we rested up for the day with a few beers overlooking the square. Belgium is famous for beer, and I have to say that trying to complete Janét’s “Top 10 Belgian Beers” list was one of the more enjoyable challenges her book had to offer!:


Our last night in Brussels we enjoyed a last waffle and beer (is that like ”a smoke and a pancake”?) on the Grand Place:







We also completed another “Top 10” by finding Le Renard, a famous golden fox on one of the buildings on the Grand Place. It had eluded us until now—perhaps because it turned out to be a tiny sculpture over a 24-hour ATM:



In the next post, we’ll discover the medieval Belgian city of Bruges.
BUT FIRST…A FEW PARTING SHOTS!

Janét gets brainy in Brussels:


Nice coconuts:


Our hotel room had this terrific view of what I liked to call “The World’s Largest Traffic Cone”. Perhaps it was a monument to all of the fallen traffic cones that have been lost before their time to bad drivers or deep potholes:


See you “In Bruges”….