16th May 2001
Lucy's parents had introduced us to a great travel company over here by the name of "Great Escapes" who specialise in small weekend breaks out of the UK. We looked through their brochure and noticed that Bruges was particularly affordable and decided to book for the upcoming long weekend. I didn't think we would be able to get it as the British don't get as many long weekends as we do back in Oz and most people plan their holidays months in advance - as we had decided at very short notice (less than a week) so I wasn't too hopeful. Fortunately, I was requesting the highest class of hotel (as we hadn't
been
away for quite some time now) so there
was
no problem getting a room. Great Escapes
express mailed us a "holiday pack"
that contained a guide book, vouchers
for
some Belgium chocolates and a brewery
visit
pass along with all our tickets and
hotel
details.
After checking into our hotel (De Tuilerieen), they took us to a room which to this day remains the most amazing hotel room I have every stayed in. We felt like Royalty! Not wanting to waste a second we quickly showered and got changed into some "summer" clothes before heading out to explore the town. We had decided to follow the walking tour that came with our guide book as it seemed to contain most of what Bruges had to offer (there is no way we could have seen everything in a single weekend). So we set out for stop number one.
This is the view from the top of the Belfort looking down on the Markt.
We headed over to the other side of the Markt and found a nice outdoor restaurant. Now, when it comes to beers Belgium's are probably the most famous on the planet. You see the beer was traditionally popular in Belgium as the drinking-water was of such poor quality - the brewing process meant that impurities in the water were rendered harmless. Nowadays, there is no problem with the water and the beer is drunk only for it's taste. In any bar in Bruges you can be faced with a choice of 100 or more different beers! I decided to jump in the deep end and order a Kwak (a strong blonde beer) that is served in a glass with a spherical base that sits in a wooden stand in order to remain upright. What I didn't plan on was the size of the beer. Lucy took a photos to prove the various quantities that I consumed over the three day weekend.
After lunch we strolled down to a place called the Burg which is considered one of the best medieval squares in Europe. It was named after the castle built by "Baldwin Iron Arm". There was quite a lot to see in this small square, including the Stadhuis (Town Hall) which was built between 1376 and 1420 - it is one of the oldest town halls in Belgium and considered a Gothic masterpiece. Right next door is the small Basiliek van het Helig Bloed (Basilica of the Holy Blood) which was completed in 1534. It is a very impressive church that holds what is said to be the actual blood of Christ. How you ask? According to my guide book, "Flemish Knight Dietrich of Alsace returned from the Second Crusade in the Holy Land in 1149 and brought with him a crystal phial belived to contain some drops of Christ's blood. Soon venerated all over medieval Europe, it is still brought out each Friday for the faithful. The dried blood turned to liquid at regular intervals for many years -- declared to be a miracle by Pope Clement V. The phial is stored in a richly and rather heavily ornate silver tabernacle presented by the archdukes of Spain in 1611." We had a quick look around although I wasn't allowed to video or take any photos inside the Church to post here, so you will just have to take my word for it - very impressive (although you don't get to see any blood - only the container that the phial is supposed to be held in).
We walked around the Burg some more before heading over the small bridge to the Vismarkt (Fishmarket) before heading back to our hotel following the course of the canal. By this time we were completely exhausted so we decided to have a bit of a rest until that evening. Luck was on our side, for that night the town was putting on a festival where they closed the majority of the city to everyone except pedistrians and put on a series of shows that showed the history of the city and the major events that occured there. We could simply walk around from location to location and watch the goings on. Some of these performances were in English but we always seemed to capture the last few words of each, so we contented ourselves with just watching the action. Although I must admit I did find the sequence on spinning-wool quite boring, however, the one with the dragon-type thing that killed everyone was quite cool! After wandering around for a while we went to yet another restaurant for dinner (and beers) before stumbling back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep.
The following morning I woke up with a mission, I wanted to see my first ever Michelangelo. You see Bruges is the home of the famous Madonna and Child by Michelangelo and since finding out it lives in one of Bruges Church's I insisted on seeing it. Before we could do this however, we had decided to queue up for a canal trip, we had noticed the previous day that there were major queues for these so we decided to take one before the queues had an opportunity to build up and before the heat of the afternoon set it, so we crossed over the small bridge from our hotel and joined the small queue to see the city from the canals.
So Lucy and I found ourselves handing over our spare drink money in order to get back on dry land! We now set off to see the Michelangelo, but not before crossing the oldest bridge in Brugge, it took about 30 minutes to get a photo without someone on it, it seems that it is in constant use, I fortunately managed to snap one without too many people on it.
Finally we found the Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk (Church of Our Lady) which has the highest brick tower in Belgium standing at an impressive 122m (400ft), it once served as a kind of inland lighthouse for ships on their way to Bruges. The exterior of the church is a hodge-podge of different styles and slightly forbidding. However the interior is almost a warehouse of religious artworks and treasures. The only one I was interested in however was the Maddona and Child by Michelangelo. I quickly consulted my guide book which pointed out that the statue was originally intended for the cathedral in Siena and was the only one of Michelangelos works to travel outside Italy during his lifetime. It was brought to Bruges by a Flemish merchant named Jan Moscroen.
The statue itself is amazing, I spent several minutes just looking at it from every angle I could manage, you almost get the sense that the Madonna is just about to move. I found my eyes playing tricks on me where I thought I glanced the very slighest of movements, the effect was very similar to the street performers that put white makeup on their faces and stand still imitating a statue. It was definately the most amazing sculpture I have fixed my eyes on. If you ever get the opportunity, don't miss a chance to see it.
After looking around the church we headed outside and plonked outselves down at yet another restaurant and sampled more of the beers on offer. We then walked back to our hotel along the canel before heading back to the hotel. The next morning we quickly set about buying a few sourviners (and I've just remembered I haven't sent them all home yet - sorry). I also brought a selection of beers to take back to the UK. We then checked out of our hotel and caught a taxi to the train-station and began our journey back home.
Bruges is amazing, I would definately love to go back, although I think my next holiday to Belgium would be to Ghent as I have noticed a number of cool looking attractions there, not least of which is the ominous Gravensteen Castle! Perhaps next time we'll have to stay longer and visit both cities as I don't think I could ever tire of Bruges.
| This is where I nearly made a fatal mistake,
you see I looked through everything
that
came in our pack except the travel tickets. So when we arrived at
Waterloo station on Saturday morning to board
the train, we found the ticket machine wouldn't
accept our tickets. We asked a member of
staff for help and he pointed out what I
should have noticed all along, my tickets
were for Friday morning!!! Naturally I went
into a complete state of panic. Checking
the hotel details confirmed my worst fears,
the hotel had been booked for Friday and
Saturday night instead of Saturday and Sunday
night - it was a complete disaster. We quickly
dashed into the Eurostar's ticket counter
and were extremely lucky as the lady managed
to change our tickets for us and also changed
our return journey. We then phoned the hotel
who told us that we had been listed as a
no-show the previous night but would be able
to put us up the second night. Although there
may be an additional cost. |
|
After checking into our hotel (De Tuilerieen), they took us to a room which to this day remains the most amazing hotel room I have every stayed in. We felt like Royalty! Not wanting to waste a second we quickly showered and got changed into some "summer" clothes before heading out to explore the town. We had decided to follow the walking tour that came with our guide book as it seemed to contain most of what Bruges had to offer (there is no way we could have seen everything in a single weekend). So we set out for stop number one.
 I took this photo as I was climbing the final few meters to the top, look at my shoe to give an indication of the width of the stairs! Don't forget there were 366 of these and other people going up and down them at the same time! |
Stop number one was the Markt, this is one of the two main squares within Bruges. On the edge of the Markt is the Belfort-Hallen (Bell Tower and Covered Market) which we decided to tackle first. The Belfort is 90 meters high and has a metre lean to the right. The top can be reached by climbing the 366 incredibly small steps that form it's tight spiral-staircase. I didn't think it would be too hard but boy was I wrong. There were no restrictions on the climb, so once you have paid your money you just climb up. The problem is, people are trying to climb down at the same time. You spend most of the time clinging onto stairs and brushing past people in the most intimate of ways in order to progress up the staircase. The photo on the right gives a good indication as to the condition on the stairs! |
| Every now and then you stumble on a landing
that has a door leading into one of the various
rooms of the Bell Tower - although these
are few and far between. Lucy didn't make
it all the way to the top, she stopped about
10 meters short and waited for me to head
to the top with my video camera. Lucy was
on the level where all the mechanics for
the Bell Tower were locatated. Meanwhile
I made it to the top of the Belfry where
the physical bells were. Unfortunately I
timed my arrival to the exact moment the
Bell's struck. I was videoing the view at
the time and the footage is hilarious, these
things were so loud that I nearly dropped
my camera over the side of the tower!!! Well, we had thought climbing up was difficult, but climbing down was far worse, when we finally made it down (both swearing never to do anything like that again). We decided to have a lunch and a few well deserved beers!!! |
 |
This is the view from the top of the Belfort looking down on the Markt.
We headed over to the other side of the Markt and found a nice outdoor restaurant. Now, when it comes to beers Belgium's are probably the most famous on the planet. You see the beer was traditionally popular in Belgium as the drinking-water was of such poor quality - the brewing process meant that impurities in the water were rendered harmless. Nowadays, there is no problem with the water and the beer is drunk only for it's taste. In any bar in Bruges you can be faced with a choice of 100 or more different beers! I decided to jump in the deep end and order a Kwak (a strong blonde beer) that is served in a glass with a spherical base that sits in a wooden stand in order to remain upright. What I didn't plan on was the size of the beer. Lucy took a photos to prove the various quantities that I consumed over the three day weekend.
   Over the holiday I consumed quite a few beers, here you can see the transformation that progressivly came over me. |
After lunch we strolled down to a place called the Burg which is considered one of the best medieval squares in Europe. It was named after the castle built by "Baldwin Iron Arm". There was quite a lot to see in this small square, including the Stadhuis (Town Hall) which was built between 1376 and 1420 - it is one of the oldest town halls in Belgium and considered a Gothic masterpiece. Right next door is the small Basiliek van het Helig Bloed (Basilica of the Holy Blood) which was completed in 1534. It is a very impressive church that holds what is said to be the actual blood of Christ. How you ask? According to my guide book, "Flemish Knight Dietrich of Alsace returned from the Second Crusade in the Holy Land in 1149 and brought with him a crystal phial belived to contain some drops of Christ's blood. Soon venerated all over medieval Europe, it is still brought out each Friday for the faithful. The dried blood turned to liquid at regular intervals for many years -- declared to be a miracle by Pope Clement V. The phial is stored in a richly and rather heavily ornate silver tabernacle presented by the archdukes of Spain in 1611." We had a quick look around although I wasn't allowed to video or take any photos inside the Church to post here, so you will just have to take my word for it - very impressive (although you don't get to see any blood - only the container that the phial is supposed to be held in).
We walked around the Burg some more before heading over the small bridge to the Vismarkt (Fishmarket) before heading back to our hotel following the course of the canal. By this time we were completely exhausted so we decided to have a bit of a rest until that evening. Luck was on our side, for that night the town was putting on a festival where they closed the majority of the city to everyone except pedistrians and put on a series of shows that showed the history of the city and the major events that occured there. We could simply walk around from location to location and watch the goings on. Some of these performances were in English but we always seemed to capture the last few words of each, so we contented ourselves with just watching the action. Although I must admit I did find the sequence on spinning-wool quite boring, however, the one with the dragon-type thing that killed everyone was quite cool! After wandering around for a while we went to yet another restaurant for dinner (and beers) before stumbling back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep.
The following morning I woke up with a mission, I wanted to see my first ever Michelangelo. You see Bruges is the home of the famous Madonna and Child by Michelangelo and since finding out it lives in one of Bruges Church's I insisted on seeing it. Before we could do this however, we had decided to queue up for a canal trip, we had noticed the previous day that there were major queues for these so we decided to take one before the queues had an opportunity to build up and before the heat of the afternoon set it, so we crossed over the small bridge from our hotel and joined the small queue to see the city from the canals.
 Believe it or not, this is the smallest gothic window in the world, it was pointed out by our guide during our canal trip. I've enlarged it so you can see more of the detail. Amazing eh!. |
The boat trip was an eye opener as the city had always depended on the canals to bring in supplies and a lot of the city's buildings have impressive canal sided decorations that are not able to be seen from the pediastrian routes. The host also told us about the city's history and explained the reasons behind it being so well preserved today (loss of trade due to the silting up of the canal system made them so poor they couldn't afford to update anything!). He also explained that every five years they have to drain all the canals in order to allow repairs to all the old buildings and bridges. This is done from money collected from tourists (on these boat trips) - so in a way we were helping to preserve Bruges for the future generations. Still this didn't stop him from asking us for all our remaining loose change when we got off the boat in order to help him preserve himself, something I was a little annoyed at, as he basically stood in front of the only exit to the boat with his hand out, so it was either pay up some cash or go swim. |
So Lucy and I found ourselves handing over our spare drink money in order to get back on dry land! We now set off to see the Michelangelo, but not before crossing the oldest bridge in Brugge, it took about 30 minutes to get a photo without someone on it, it seems that it is in constant use, I fortunately managed to snap one without too many people on it.
| My over-eagerness to see the Michelangello
caused me to visit the Gruuthuse Museum(as in the guide book the photo of the Michelangelo
was right next to the Museums's entry). While
the Michelangelo wasn't at the museum, there
were a number of interesting things, including
a rather strange painting which Lucy and
I thought was very funny. I have included a copy of it on the
right hand side here. I'm affraid
there was
no information around the photo
to let us
know what it was supposed to
mean! |
 Poor kid! I bet posing for this picture hurt like hell!! |
Finally we found the Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk (Church of Our Lady) which has the highest brick tower in Belgium standing at an impressive 122m (400ft), it once served as a kind of inland lighthouse for ships on their way to Bruges. The exterior of the church is a hodge-podge of different styles and slightly forbidding. However the interior is almost a warehouse of religious artworks and treasures. The only one I was interested in however was the Maddona and Child by Michelangelo. I quickly consulted my guide book which pointed out that the statue was originally intended for the cathedral in Siena and was the only one of Michelangelos works to travel outside Italy during his lifetime. It was brought to Bruges by a Flemish merchant named Jan Moscroen.
The statue itself is amazing, I spent several minutes just looking at it from every angle I could manage, you almost get the sense that the Madonna is just about to move. I found my eyes playing tricks on me where I thought I glanced the very slighest of movements, the effect was very similar to the street performers that put white makeup on their faces and stand still imitating a statue. It was definately the most amazing sculpture I have fixed my eyes on. If you ever get the opportunity, don't miss a chance to see it.
After looking around the church we headed outside and plonked outselves down at yet another restaurant and sampled more of the beers on offer. We then walked back to our hotel along the canel before heading back to the hotel. The next morning we quickly set about buying a few sourviners (and I've just remembered I haven't sent them all home yet - sorry). I also brought a selection of beers to take back to the UK. We then checked out of our hotel and caught a taxi to the train-station and began our journey back home.
Bruges is amazing, I would definately love to go back, although I think my next holiday to Belgium would be to Ghent as I have noticed a number of cool looking attractions there, not least of which is the ominous Gravensteen Castle! Perhaps next time we'll have to stay longer and visit both cities as I don't think I could ever tire of Bruges.