Bruges

April 20, 2024
One of the main reasons we moved to Portugal was so we could travel. I used to DREAD the 20+ hours of travel to get from the west coast to Europe. This time, we only two and a half hours to get to our destination. Love it!!

When we arrived, we found out that it was quite cold. 48 degrees! The train to Bruges was just 90 minutes. However, there is no food or drink and we got off the plane and went straight to the station. I wish we would have thought to grab something to eat!

Our hotel is right in the middle of the historic city center.

Great view out the window of the old buildings.

However, the room didn't seem much warmer than it was outside.

Because once again Robin didn't believe it was going to be this cold, she is now wearing my way-too-big jacket.

Since we were starving, we began on what would be 24 hours of unhealthy high caloric food. Belgium is known for fries, beer, waffles, and chocolate. We indulged in three of the four over the next day!

The whole area could not be cuter.

The canals are like paintings.

The architecture is amazing!

The courthouse at night.

A sad moment when we came across this dog groomer's shop since we just lost our little Lily a few weeks ago.

The restaurant out our hotel window looks so inviting!

April 21, 2024

The next morning started out dark and cold.

For breakfast, we indulged in the next bad thing - waffles!

Thankfully, the sun came out while at breakfast! Although still quite cold, it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Every direction is gorgeous.

Just a beautiful city!

Within a few hours, a thousand people would pass through this area.

It's mostly a car-free zone in the historic area...

...so the main method of transportation is a bicycle.

Too cold to sit in the furry chairs!

We started our 11am walking tour with a very animated guide named Peter.

The houses are from the 12th and 13th centuries. The big wooden door has saints above it to keep out the bad spirits. If you build a new structure now, you cannot give it a medieval look and must give it a modern look. Our guide said that they don't want it to look like "Disneyland". Funny... because I thought many times the whole town looked like Epcot because it was so perfect.

Bruges was completely preserved during WWII. Although a German commander was given orders to destroy all gates, arches, and churches, he did not do it. He apparently fell in love with the city and could not bring himself to destroy it.

Bruges was a very wealthy city, mostly due to their location and trading.

The most famous brewery is Half Moon brewery. Although they still brew their beer at this location in the historic city center, they no longer allow trucks to pick up the brewed beer because they were ruining the cobblestone streets.

Our guide led us to this "pipeline" where the beer is pumped to a location outside the city. In reality, this is not the pipe because it is way under ground.

Stoofstraat... otherwise known as the red light district. Originally, these buildings were bathhouses for rich men during a time when people didn't take baths. Women washed these rich men, and it often turned into something more. Hence, the brothel district.

This is a very old hospital that divides the old from the "new". (New is relative, because it's still very old). Anyone that wanted to enter the older area had to do a health check at the hospital before being allowed. Bruges went through three plagues, one of which killed 70% of their population. If you were sick, you went by boat into the area with the gray awning. It basically was the last boat ride and gate you would ever see.

Although no one is in this photo, it was a very touristy area (EVERYTHING is crowded!) The home for sale on the right has an asking price of 1.4 million euros. However, right behind it...

...is a very popular attraction called the Love Bridge.

This is a very bizarre-looking church called Basilica of the Holy Blood. It was built between 1134-37, and supposedly has a relic with the blood of Jesus.

Near the church was another building with metal rings attached. No, these were not for horses. Instead, they would chain the people who were to be executed within the next 24 hours. If someone wanted to, they could go ahead and kill them while they were chained to the wall. Most were revenge executions over petty grievances.

The steps leading to the top of the roofline indicated how much money you had. More steps = more money.

A fish market.

The walking tour was over and now it was time for the half-hour canal cruise.

It was peaceful and nice since the sun was mostly out.

Now it's time for the third indulgence - chocolate!!

Way too many choices and stores. There is a whole street known as "Chocolate Street".

I also got tired of being cold and now own a new scarf.

When we returned to the hotel, it was Handmaids Tale (or the perpetrators of..?) Anyway, not sure what they are.

One last photo with the setting sun. Bruges has been great to see once and 36 hours is enough. It's too crowded, "perfect", and WAY too expensive!

Brussels

April 22, 2024

We took the train back to Brussels so we could meet up with Connie. Lucky for us, her hotel is right next to the train station!

Walking through one of the nearby parks.

First stop... more waffles!

Robin and I opted for hot chocolate in this cold weather.

We met up with our free walking tour group. We always do a walking tour to see the city as an initial overview.

Surrounding the Grote Market square, there are 40 "houses". Each one of these guild houses represented a trade or industry. There was a bakers house, a butchers house, a carpenters house, a brewers house, a tanners house, and so on. Each house has a saint, a logo, and a church. This started in the 12th century and continued to the late 1700's. Today, the ground floors may still be represented by the particular industry of the house, but the upper floors consist of apartments, banks, and Airbnb's.

The stars stay at Hotel Amigo. Recently, the Rolling Stones could be seen waving from the balcony.

Third to only Japan and the US, Belgium is known for their comic book characters. This street art depicts The Adventures of TinTin, one of the most popular European comics of the 20th Century. TinTin and his dog Snowy first appeared in 1929. Unfortunately, women or girls were rarely seen in any of TinTin's adventures, and if they were, they were in the kitchen.

The statue of Manneken Pis (Dutch for "little pissing man") has been called the most disappointing landmark in Europe. The statue has been repeatedly stolen or damaged throughout it's history. Since 1965, a replica has been displayed and the original is in the Brussels City Museum. I remember walking a LONG way to see this statue on a college tour in 1985. I'm glad to hear that it's the most "disappointing landmark in Europe" because I remember thinking... we walked all the way here for THIS?

The Stolpersteine (or stumbling stones) are all over Europe. Placed in the pavement, these small brass cobblestones mark the houses where Jewish people and other victims lived before they were deported to Nazi death camps.

We saw many of these large clay pots.

The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries consists of the King's Gallery, the Queen's Gallery, and the Princes' Gallery. Built in 1847, the intention was to turn a working class neighborhood where the bourgeoisie scarcely ventured into a covered shopping arcade more than 600 feet in length.

Robin and I love going to Food Halls in various cities.

This one had about 15 different ethnic food choices. We are often the oldest people there.

Love the "self-identified"!

A random corner near our hotel.

A random church near our hotel.

Beautiful sunset over a not-so-pretty view.

Leuven

April 23, 2024

OMG! Another day, another waffle!

Another day, another train. This time to Leuven - a college town of about 150,000 people.

This Gothic building is now the Town Hall.

St. Peters Basilica was built in the 15th century. It's across from the Town Hall and both are UNESCO sites.

The wood pulpit inside the church was carved in the 17th Century with a life-size representation of a man falling from a horse.

Leuven has a university with 63,000 students. We went into the University Hall to use the bathroom and it was quite beautiful inside.

Great coffee shop named Onan. It was tolerable to sit outside IF the sun was shining.

Because the guide had cancelled last-minute the free walking tour we booked, we had to do a self-guided tour. We were trying to find the street art of the city. However, we'd be at the exact location on the map and there was nothing there.

However, we did see some unique street art.

This one was called "Climate Confusion".

Not sure what these creatures are..?

Someone has stolen my new scarf and isn't trying to hide it!

Excellent lunch at a Syrian restaurant named Damasco.

Ghent

April 24, 2024

Thankfully, we are waffle-d out!

Walking near the Central Brussels train station while waiting for Connie to get ready for our day trip to Ghent.

In front of the Margritte Museum.

We are now in Ghent walking along the canal to our walking tour. We've seen lots of protests and street art against Israel.

While some of the towers date back 500-600 years...

....most of the buildings had a major facelift for the 1913 World Expo. The building with the blue door was a tax house. No one wanted to pay their taxes, so it’s been burnt down at least six times. Building to the right of it is the oldest grain storage building in the world.

Many hotel guests don't know it, but the Marriott hotel was once a brothel. The building next door was a sailors guild and next to that was a bathhouse. So it was get paid first, have a bath, and then visit the brothel.

The guide called the castle “the most useless castle in the world” because it was built in the center of the city and it doesn't protect anything. It's only been occupied once and that was by students in 1949 when beer prices were too high and they stormed inside the front gate, barricaded themselves in, and demanded lower beer prices. The mayor eventually promised them discounts and the protest lasted a whole day. Today, they still celebrate November 6 and the “storming of the castle” by dressing in medieval clothes and getting drunk.

Even though Ghent is beautiful, it was a miserable day for us weather-wise. One minute the sun was shining, the next minute it was pouring rain. It was also very COLD and gusty. So far, every day in Belgium, I've been wind-burned.

Once again, you can find on various buildings throughout Belgium the national symbol of a little boy peeing. Apparently, they once used the ammonia from children's pee to break down the leathers when tanning hides. In our guide’s words, they “violated all children's labor laws”.

Two very old houses in Ghent.

The cannon was going to be used against the Spaniards and weighs several tons. But the ball just fell out onto the ground, and it was never used again. College students used to try to crowd into the cannon to see how many people could fit in at once. The firefighters were always having to pull them out. So, it's been sealed off and is still the most abused landmark in the city.

This 11 century building used to be a tannery. The numerous windows on the roof are air vents to help with the stench. It's now a House of Poetry.

The Houses of the People initiated by the Belgian Socialist Workers’ Party was built at the end of the 19th century.

An alleyway where anyone can draw/paint over someone else's artwork. There is an unwritten rule that it must be better than the last person's work. However, it never turns out that way.

No one paints over Nigel's work and he has celebrity status in the street art world.

The Town Hall.

We are now back in Brussels at Connie's hotel to say goodbye.

Goodbye Belgium, until next time!