July trip
1/7 - Bruges

*This post was supposed to have some photos in it, but thanks to the incompetence/stupidity/laziness of a French Internet Cafe staff member in Nimes, they have been lost for eternity*

*Picture of a horse, to the rear of which is connected a cloth sack*
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This is why you almost never see horse shit on the streets of Bruges, and why the streets don't smell

*Belfort*
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With my proclivity to climbing tall buildings, I had to mount the belfort - one of the Belfries of Belgium and France.

A glockenspiel is a carillion in English. Oura tricked us. Boo.

*Wrought iron doors*
2 wrought iron doors from 1290. The railings are still strong enough to be opened, suspended from the hinges (then again, they probably restored it)

It's fun to watch the bell ringing mechanism go. Presumably it's 18th century like the bells. At the turn of the hour, the bells play a Carmen medley, at a quarter past Handel's grobischmie (?) and at half past, Beethoven's nineth, and so on.

They had a picture of the carillion player, Aime Lombaert. He has an Amish facial hair pattern.

*Me at the top of the Belfort*

*Views of Bruges from the Belfort*
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IIRC, the day when I was there it was very clear

*Statue in Markt (Square)*
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(I hope these are of the Markt and not the Burg)

I saw a Delifrance in Bruges. I wonder if there're Delifrances in Wallonie.

*Wedding with people in funky suits*
This wedding was being held in the city hall.

In the basement of the Crown Plaza in Brugge, there're old foundations which the builders of the hotel built around. So you can go into the basement and run around. Unfortunately the basement was closed for a party on Saturday, so I had to go down on Sunday morning.

*Basilica of the Holy Blood*
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Interior pictures

The basilica is 2 storeyed - at the bottom you've a very bare level made of stone which is dark and hardly decorated, but on top it's like a normal basilica.

There was a "Noble brotherhood of the Holy Blood". Uhh. They also had pictures of a procession on Ascension, where the people dressed up in historical costumes. I saw a Moses carrying 2 tablets on which Roman Numberals from I-X were written.

*Tabernacle with the vial of blood*
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Description: "This tabernacle is in the Basilica of the Holy Blood, in Bruges. Inside lies the container of the Holy Blood of Christ, which was brought to Bruges most likely after the Crusades." (Source)

I saw a nachtwinkel (night shop), open from Mon-Sun from 6pm-2am. I peeked inside and saw a woman in punjabi suit trousers and a sari top going upstairs. Thank god for immigrants!

In a shop window I saw a motorised 1:16 scale model of a M1A2 Abrahms - "Iraqi Freedom Edition". It could even shoot a bullet to a provided cardboard target.

Langestraat in Bruges was labeled "Hello Street". According to Use-It, there were supposed to be 20 signs along it asking people to salute each other,but I didn't see any. Gah.

Bruges had some small windmills, but they were nothing compared with Kinderdijk. Or indeed the other Dutch windmills I'd seen.

*Jerusalem church*
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Jeruzalemkerk was built in the 15th century, a copy of the Church of the Holy Grave in Jerusalem.

*Small alcove in Jerusalem church.*
You must stoop to enter.

*Altar*
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Most of the museums in Bruges offered a museum pass - for €15 you could enter 5 museums or similar sites (like the Belfort). If I were paying the adult price it'd be worth it, but in the end I decided to spend slightly more time in each place and resting, so I visited individual sites. The main factor in my decision was whether I wanted to visit the main art museum. I'd seen plenty of works, Flemish ones in particular, and would see more in Brussels and Antwerp, so I elected not to. I think all were in a conspiracy, for their tickets all said that photography was disallowed. Bah.

Although Bruges is in Flanders, most people know it as Bruges - its French name. In Dutch, it's "Brugge". It's the same with Ghent (Gent). On the other hand, no one knows where Luik is. Bloody French.

Flanders had a "Flanders Early Music Festival" this year from 22 Jul - 5 August. Maybe I can go one day.

*Frontage of the Stadsarchief*
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It's the old recorder's house; a renaissance building.

*Stadhuis*
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Since there was a marriage going on it looked somewhat different

*Pavilion by Toyo Ito*

Since it faces the Mayor's house, locals call it the 'Governor's Carwash'
The water around it (due to rain and the area around being depressed) didn't help
As modern art goes it's actually alright

At the base of the Belfort, Americans were ordering frietten sans saus. Tsk. Wanting to try something new, I opted for Samurai saus after checking the ingredients list. To my extreme discomfort, the sauce was extremely hot. Checking the ingredients list again, I realised that "rode pepers" did not mean "red peppers" but "red chilis". In the end I ate much of the fries sans saus and cooled down with 1 bol of banaan ijs.

The Dutch fry their frites very roughly, but the Belgians do it more delicately. Perhaps this is why people say Belgian fries are better, yet the best fries I've ever had were Dutch.

A Scottish band was playing in the square and they were quite bad. Then for Amazing Grace, bagpipes played along with the band. It was so hideous, some dogs started barking.

*Bridge, canal near Church of our Lady*

*Church of our Lady*
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*Madonna and Child*
1504/5, Michelangelo. Behind a sheet of glass.
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This is one of the few Michelangelo sculptures outside Italy.

Then I needed to go to the toilet, and since Bruges like the rest of Flanders and like the Netherlands does not have free public toilets, I went to use the one in a nearby museum, The Memling Museum (of course then proceeding to look at the exhibits).

The museum had a free audioguide with commentary on at least 3/4 the works, but no written information was provided in any language, not even Dutch. Bloody hell. I had no time, energy or interest to listen to everything. What I usually do is read labels and descriptions and only listen to the audioguide if they, together with the items in question, pique my interest.

The audioguide commented about a work from the 2nd half of the 15th century that it had the 'throne of Grace' theme and that its 'naiviety and vivid colours give it undeniable charm'. Bah. If it's lousy say it's lousy.
When this work was restored, the Holy Spirit, positioned in between the Father and the Son, disappeared. Aww. I was also reminded that you don't often see the Father represented in art.


Travel tips:

- Read Jiekai's cock files and do the opposite of what he did