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Bruges 2010 |
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I rarely bother to create travel reports for this website when I go on mere "day trips" or "weekend trips", which is a bit of a shame since many gorgeous towns fail to make an appearance here on this website because of my lazyness. And Bruges was so incredibly beautiful and picturesque now, I just couldn't NOT create a page for this town. After all I wound up taking around 100 photos on one day!
Bruges, for those who don't know or have missed the recent black comedy "In Bruges" with Colin Farrell (that must have had Bruges' tourist industry dancing a jig) is part of the Flemish "golden triangle" (which also includes Gand and Antwerp) and also a popular daytrip destination for Brits who take the ferry to Zeebrugge. I had been there myself on a daytrip from a summer vacation at the Dutch seaside with my parents when I was 13 or so, so I didn't remember one bit. And having been to Antwerp and Brussels so often and finally to Gand, I just figured I should really re-visit Bruges some time. The aforementioned movie and the need to find a nice weekend-break destination for my friend and me then did it: Off to Bruges we were.
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And with the hotel I had booked, the highly recommended Duc de Bourgogne, we had also hit the jackpot straightaway: It wasn't only on one of Bruges' prettiest corners, our room window also offered a spectacular view (see above and below - that was the view from right towards the Belfort to straightahead to the left side).
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Bruges (or Brugge as the Flemish call their town) is also known as "Venice of the North" which is a moniker I hate (be something unique, don't try to be a copy of something that cannot be copied, are you listening, St.Petersburg, Venice of the East?) and it doesn't do this gorgeous little town justice anyway. There -are- quite a few canals, the "Reien", that cross the town, but certainly not half as many as Venice has. Many people do a little cruise on the Reien with a motorboat, but you can just as well cover the main area of the city on foot, walking around the canals to admire all the pretty old buildings at your own pace and stop by the sights you will pass on the way.
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One of Bruges' major artifacts is Michelangelo's "Madonna with Child" in the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (above left and middle) - unlike their neighbours in Gand who hide van Eyck's famous altarpiece in a separate room in St.Baafs Cathedral so they can charge 5 Euro entrance for it, the good people of Bruges keep the Madonna proudly (and for free) in the middle of the church. Saint Martin meanwhile guards a bridge over the canal outside.
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The walk brought us to the Beginenhof at last, an abbey-like ground where single women would go to live after having been widowed or simply never getting married to live like nuns, doing charity work and prayer, without taking the same kind of vows. The one in Bruges was started by the duchess of Flanders in 13th century and existed until the last Begine died in 1930. Today it's a proper abbey for Benedictine nuns.
From there we went back past St.Servaas' Church, the third of Bruges' great spires (the others being the Belfort and the spire of the OLV-Kerk, which was wrapped up in building sheets, so I didn't take a picture of it). There you end up on Bruges' major shopping drag which leads back to the Grand Place and Belfort.
I snuck the photo of what could be called Bruges' Bridge of Sighs up there beside the church, since it looked much better in daylight. We returned to the hotel by five for a break and went out again for dinner after dark. Once all the daytrippers and shoppers are gone, Bruges goes quiet and the silent, beautifully lit canals and places in the center all had a magic of their own. So here's the front of the gothic town hall and the Basilica of the Holy Blood - the Bridge of Sighs bit was in a small alley between the town hall and the basilica leading towards the canal. Below are a picture from the building of the provincial government on the Grand Place and another of the canal and Belfort as seen from our hotel in the quiet of the night.
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And here are three more photos of the Grand Place on a sunny morning in late autumn. The two guys overlooking the square are Jan Breydel and Pieter De Coninck, Bruges' local heros who started an uprising against the French in early 14th century by butchering the local garnison, which led in turn to the victorious Battle of Courtrai that made them heroes. Flanders lost its independence to France three years later anyway, but apparently these guys are still the best the Flemish can muster for national heroes.
Since Bruges is so close to the sea, we went there in the morning for a long walk along the beach of Blankenberge, one of Belgium's seaside resorts and worst architectural sins known to mankind, where I reheated myself with some good old hot Chocomel before starting the journey back home (all of three hours from Cologne!)
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