In Bruges - orientation, bells and a wig

Wednesday 11 June 2025

Bruges - or Brugge in Flemish - was our second stop on the holiday.  Again, we'd picked accommodation smack beside a canal (our hotel is the first building on the right below).  This one had pretty ornate decor but a dodgy coffee machine and the room safe wasn't secured to the wall (not much point of it then?).

Wednesday evening was for strolling around orientating ourselves and we headed east from the centre.  Bruges is a UNESCO world heritage city, no doubt earning that title due to a savvy planning policy in the late 19th century that restricted development within the city centre to mirror the existing architectural style.  Many original Gothic buildings have been retained and, along with other authentic dwellings of period style, give the city a homogeneous architectural feel.

A lot of Ave Marias were installed on the corners of buildings.

We found the 4 surviving windmills on the eastern edge, and Kruispoort (Cross Gate), one of the four remaining gates surrounding the city.

Thursday 12 June 2025

As I often do in a new city, I like to get up high to get a feel for the place.  The place to do this was the Belfort (Belfry).  366 steps up a narrow stairway is always my idea of fun.

It contained a carillon which activated the bells - as the drum rotated, the pegs triggered a pulley which struck the bells above.  Each quarter of the hour is accompanied by a different tune and every year they change the complete repertoire by moving the pegs on the drum.   [Or I think that was the Ghent carillon, but you get the drift].

And, as you can't hear the bells on the clip above, here are the sweet bells.

The views were great!  And that's the way to Luxembourg, 296 km away.

Before climbing Belfort, we had bought a Musea Brugge card giving us access to up to 12 museums.  So we had to make the most of it as I hate not to use my museum allowance.

We explored the Gruuthusemuseum which had been the residence of Louis (or Lodewijk) van Gruuthuse in the 15th century, when Brugge was a buzzing commercial centre.  It showcases life in that period, for those who had the money.  

And they'd left a wig or two.

Then it was off to Burg Square where we spotted the Basilica of the Holy Blood was open.

 

Inside it's classic Gothic, with the addition of a long queue of catholics/tourists keen to have a quick glimpse of the holy blood.  Call me a sceptic, but I wasn't convinced it was worth the wait.  The Romanesque chapel downstairs was more pleasant.

We were following one of the Brugge city trails of sorts, but also veering off to find interesting sites as they cropped up.  It really is such a beautiful city.

We jostled through a crowd of tourists - they conveniently congregated in a region no more than a few hundred metres from the main drag - and wandered down to Oud Sint-Janshospitaal, St John's hospital.

We also found the local beer pipe which, at 3 km, is probably one of the longest pipes from brewery to the bottling factory.  It keeps the beer production in the heart of the city, but the tankers that distribute it can now remain beyond the city moat.

No beer for now, but a stroll down to Minnewaterpark (Lake of the Love Park) which was created to stop the city flooding. In the Middle Ages the waterway was part of the city's docks, but it was blocked to control the flow of water into the city, and the reservoir formed.

A very pleasant stroll towards the southerly edge of the city.  And that was Thursday.

In Zeebrugge

Wednesday 11 June 2025

Between Ghent and Bruges we had a few hours to kill and, as I wanted to see the sea, I suggested a walk in Zeebrugge.  The Belgium coastline is not one to die for, or, indeed, make much of a detour for.  But detour we did and we walked a short Zeebrugge history trail.   Although Zeebrugge has as much history as everywhere else, there isn't much left standing.  

Zeebrugge obviously has lots of maritime connections, as seen by this lovely front garden.

We strolled around the harbour area and stopped for a drink in the sun.  

Visserskruis, Fisherman's Cross, was erected in 1936 in memory of those fisherman lost at sea.

I spotted all sorts of interesting boats, a geophysical survey vessel, retired light vessel, Westhinder II built in 1950 and a rather nattily painted ferry.

Zeebrugge isn't large and primarily functions as a terminal, ferrying people, cars and millions of other goods in and out of Europe.  We passed trains carrying 100s of cars to the port, and discovered that there is actually a class of ship that is designed just to carry cars (of course, I should have known that, I just never thought about it) - it's called a PCC, pure car carrier.

Zeebrugge isn't really a tourist town, but I did discover a little tourist spot ;-)

Off to Bruges now we go...

In Ghent (Gent)

Sunday 08 June 2025

After a day or so in Luxembourg - waving off the girls and Mark on the train on the Saturday, and fond farewells to JC's family on the Sunday - we drove up to Ghent.  We'd booked a super lovely hotel on the canal and it lived up to its marketing.  We arrived with my bouquet and the ring balloon, to a beautifully decorated room (complete with globe) and opened our cards/gifts.

We enjoyed our initial wanderings of the canals and street art.

Graslei on the west (below left) and Korenlei, opposite on the east of the River Lys, were just outside our room.

Monday 09 June 2025

We awoke to see there were no tourists.  "Wake up JC!" I encouraged sleepy, "coast is clear".  So out he scurried to nab a few tourist-free shots.  Here he is.

First up for our tourist trail was the Castle of the Counts.  This is one of the few medieval remaining fortresses in Flanders. 

The cameraman at large...

Great views from the top.

Next we enjoyed a boat trip.  We'd bought Gent cards which included a little water excursion, so I was certainly up for that ;-)

I loved the little nesting sites they made for the coots.

We popped into St Bavo's cathedral.  The main draw for this is the altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers, but we weren't keen to pay to see the immersive experience.  Most (all?) of the churches we saw were in gothic style.  

Then it was off to climb the Belfry to get more views.  This is the back of St Nicholas' church.

When in Belgium eat frites and drink beer ;-)

We spent our days visiting sights with lots of wandering around in between.  With my sciatica, sitting wasn't on my agenda, and we had a few trails that helped us discover Ghent, including the wonderful graffiti alley.

We, well, mainly JC, wanted to capture Ghent at night.  This took some time in arriving as, being summer, it wasn't fully dark until after 2230.  Well past my peak hour, but I did stay up this once.

Tuesday 10 June 2025

We took the water taxi down to the MSK, the Museum of Fine Arts.  I think we spent about an hour or so here but, sadly, I didn't take any pictures as there was only about one painting I liked.  This has further reinforced JC's view that my art education has been seriously lacking.

St Peter's Abbey obviously interested me a little more as I took some photos, and it had an amazing painted ceiling in the refectory.  You can see it wasn't super sunny, but dry, grey weather is perfect for strolling around.

We stuck our head into the next door church, Our Lady of St Peter's.  It must have had a decent ceiling too.

We took the water taxi back to the centre and I loved this tunnel on the Reep canal.

I wanted to visit Handelsdok, the historic docks of Ghent following this 7.5 km trail.  It turned out to be fascinating, particularly as someone had decided to collect disused cranes from around the region, turning this into the largest crane museum I know.

The first one we came across, was an ST1 cargo crane, dating from 1983 and 55 m tall.  You can even climb it.

The one JC is parked on below was the smallest and oldest one. It's a hand crane dating from 1870 and has a lifting capacity of 3 tons.  And the grey one on the right is a crane cab from about 1925.  It is notable for being one of the first with electric propulsion.  

I do like a bit of industrial heritage.

Wednesday 11 June 2025

We left Ghent today but not before sticking our head into another church - trust me, I'm not subjecting you to all my ecclesiastical photos.  This is St Nicholas.  And time to say farewell to the lovely Ghent.