We made it to Brugge late at night, taking a train from Brussels. It was very tiring having traveled all day. We found our apartment after midnight. After a good nights sleep we started checking out the sights.
Brugge is an amazing place, especially for chocolate lovers! Brugge boasts the world's best chocolate! I don't know if that's true or not, but one thing is for sure; the chocolate here is unlike any other we have tasted! I have found myself ordering Hot Chocolate multiple times a day instead of coffee! It is as smooth as silk and soft as a baby's bottom! The color is pleasing to see and the temperature is just right. I wouldn't be surprised if its shaken, not stirred!
The architecture in Brugge is also different. Some designs are similar to other parts of Europe, but overall, the buildings are beautiful. So many of them have a "stair step" front facade. It looks as if you could walk up the roof clear to the chimney top! Pretty cool! Many of the fronts have the building date on them. Many have dates from the 14th Century to the 16th Century, while some of the newer buildings I looked at today were of the 18th Century.
Yesterday was our first full day of sightseeing. We took a boat ride tour on the canal. We window shopped and sipped hot chocolate here and there. Many shops in Brugge cater to selling Lace, which is one thing this city is known for. Debby and Nancy actually went into a place next to a church that had several ladies making lace work. They said even the 85 year old was working so fast they couldn't see how her hands put it together!
Fashionable clothing stores abound. However, not one of them carry Overalls or flannel shirts! Then there are the chocolate stores. They abound! Many of them claim to have Brugge's best chocolate! But they were all creative with designing chocolate to resemble any shape they wanted, including rubber duckies, sea shells and sea creatures! I loved the one place that carried a sign in the shop window that said, "A BALANCED DIET IS CHOCOLATE IN BOTH HANDS".
We took a walkabout this morning and headed for a church where there was a sculpture by Michaelangelo, the only statue created by him that resides anywhere but in Italy. It was a sculpture of Mary and baby Jesus in a beautiful old church that had burial crypts and everything!
From there we headed to an area where there were 4 Wind Mills, Holland style, next to the canal. Apparently Brugge used to have 60 or 70 in use, but are now down to 4 for show, non-working. On the way we met a woman on a bike who stopped to talk with us. She lived nearby in a small house. She was probably in her early 80's, very nice, telling us about the history of her neighborhood and how to find interesting places few people know about. She introduced us to an older gentleman who showed us inside an old house he had bought and was renovating. He didn't know how old it was for sure but it was probably a 17th Century building. He said he lived in Antwerp and that he bought the property for investment. I doubt very much that when I get to be 85 that I will buy a fixer upper for over $350k for an investment!
We hopped on a bus and went to the train station to find an information station. We wanted to take a trip out to see the North Sea and to find a tour to Flanders Field. As we walked up to the counter we spied a small sign that said there would be a train strike on the 3rd of October, lasting for 24 hours. This was bad! We were supposed to catch a train into Brussels on the 3rd! So we canceled our trip to the North Sea and the Flanders Field tours were full anyway. so we spent the afternoon panicking on what to do tomorrow!
It's ended up ok. Good thing we panicked as much as we did! We found a private car and driver to take us to Brussels tomorrow afternoon to our hotel. It's costing us about $130 but at least we don't have to start hitch hiking! So we can sleep peacefully tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment