String Of Butterflies: Bruges, Belgium

The wonderful Bruges, Belgium. Crossing the street from the train station and entering Minnewaterpark it is like stepping back in time, only with cars lining the streets. This past weekend I went to Bruges, for a very brief time (less than 48 hours), and while this is not nearly enough time to get a full view of the city, I was able to see quite a bit in a short amount of time. After getting in and finding my hotel, I had less than an hour to eat and get to the meeting point for the bike tour I was planning on taking. Lunch was a quick baguette with olive tapenade and cheese with a nice lemonade, the perfect fuel for a 4 hour bike ride. I went with the tour company QuasiMondo (http://www.quasimundo.com/borderbybike.html), and the tour was being led by Thomas. Ironically, my tour was Thomas' last one for the summer before returning to university, and boy did our group give him a run for his money. Our group was about 23 people, and we had some teenagers without their parents in it. We were cycling along the former fortress wall when one bike broke down completely (in the first 5 minutes), and they had to go back to the shop to get a new one. Then we had not one, but two tire tubes breaking, requiring Thomas to ride back to the shop to get the 2nd tire tube. I'm assured that this is not a regular occurrence, however, Murphy's Law was playing with us, with the help of two teenagers trying to impress the 3rd one (= tire #2 breaking). While we were waiting we were able to enjoy the view of the lovely windmills. There are more windmills in this city than there are in Amsterdam and its nearby countryside. These windmills have blades that are painted in the city colors of blue, white, and red. Next to the windmills is an archery field. Apparently in the Middle Ages, arrows were shot almost vertically over the walls, in hopes that on the down fall, the arrow would pierce armor at the top or on the head, killing the enemy. The archery spires have multiple levels with feathers on it to try to practice aiming at a high vertical 'target.' The city itself used to be very important for importation having a central port, or at least until the port was silted up not once, but twice. So as a result, the port moved to Zeebrugge.

Minnewater

Our Lady Church (where Madonna and Child sculpture is)

One of the many windmills

Canals of Damme

Damme Church

Next up was bicycling towards the city of Damme, where I cycled with the only other solo traveler, a 40 something year old dermatologist for the Navy based in Spain, named John, who randomly last minute joined our tour. Damme at one point was a very large city, but now is much smaller as compared to Bruges. The city was surrounded by a star like canal where the fortress walls used to be (see the Google Maps picture below).

Picture courtesy of Google Maps

Damme Church

Damme Church with the flat tower

We stopped at the church in Damme, which has several interesting stories about it. The church used to be much larger than its current incarnation. During the Middle Ages, rich and poor alike used to have to attend church. After a while though, it became a well known that if you were rich enough you could pay your way to heaven. These extra payments to the church were also used to try to get the rich physically closer to heaven by being buried in the church walls. This is where the term 'stinking rich' come from, the rich would literally be decaying in the walls and the poor would be surrounded by the literally sticking dead rich. Another old saying we were informed about was 'saved by the bell.' One of the major fears in the middle ages was being buried alive, since doctors didn't know about comas and other illnesses, so sometimes people were actually buried alive. So after a person was buried, there would be a string attached to a bell above their grave, and in case they were alive, they could ring the bell. Someone who was watching the cemetery would ideally hear and help the person out, therefore the phrase 'saved by the bell' was created. This is also where the term graveyard shift comes from. The cathedrals in the area often don't have spires on the top of their towers, because of either the wars or the Protestants would destroy them. A little bit down the road is the city hall. In front of it is a beautiful statue, and next to it, the Michelin man... quite odd.
On the corner of the building are 2 blocks with an eye hook on it. Apparently these were attached to women as punishment in years past. After this quick pit stop, we cycled around Damme's canal, and then came back to enjoy a local beer and I had pannekoeken (I should have gone for the waffle).

Damme city hall with the Michelin man

Afterwards we had a little history about how the Nazi's flooded the land and canals to prevent the Allies from landing there and trying to take back the land. Then we cycled back to Bruges. By this time, it was almost 6pm, so I made a round of Market Square and Burg Square before slowly making my way back to my hotel. I bought some chocolates and gifts along the way. I was still quite full from the beer and pannekoeken, but I knew I needed to get something more before passing out for the night. So I went to De Bier Bistro (http://www.debierbistro.be/), which is located in an underground cavern, where I enjoyed a nice Kasteelbier Rouge which has a cherry liquor added to it, and an appetizer- Scampi met tagiatelle op wijze van de chef afgewerkt met Leffe Royale which is shrimp scampi with Leffe Royale beer and had a mayonnaise like sauce with it. After dinner I strolled around Wollestraat, only to find a British couple who kept asking people where they should go for dinner, so I recommended the restaurant that I went to and walked back there with them on my way back to the hotel. I ended up falling asleep to a special on the BBC on King Richard III who was found under a parking lot, and how they established him through tracking down the last remaining relative with the same mitochondrial DNA as him, 17 or so generations removed through his sister's line (side note- mitochondrial DNA is passed on only from your mother, and this is what they trace lineage to from bones of centuries back, it's usually the only remaining viable DNA left in the bones after such a extensive length of time under non-preferable conditions). So in other words, a nice end to my day, complete with a bit of science.

Countryside bike tour

Beautiful sky by the beer garden

Canal view in Bruges

Burg Square

Another canal shot

Chocolate!

De Bier Bistro

Statue across a canal bridge

Twilight by the canals

Steepled roofs

twilight shots

Church at night

Night shot of the canals

More chocolate

My chocolates!

Day 2: I woke up with a running start, getting out the door by 7:45 and wandering to a local cafe, where I had a few fried eggs and croissant with hot chocolate that was boiling hot. I quickly demolished my breakfast and started to walk the near empty streets. I ended up walking many of the streets in an estimated amount of ~15km (9.3 miles) that morning, landing at Gentpoortvest and walking up the street and saw 3 of the 5 remaining gates to the city. The only other people out were walking their dogs, bicycling, or going for a run. Such a peaceful morning. I walked up to the windmills and then started walking toward the center, walking past the archery club at Stijn Streuvelsstraat, past the Sint Annaplein church and along the canals. In the canals, there was a large clan of swans swimming in a single file line. I then walked to the beautiful Koningin Astridpark. There was a park for the kids with all the play equipment and a little farther away there was a beautiful stand where bands could play or weddings could occur. Next to it was a pond with a bronze sculpture and a variety of animals. I then walked to the fish market (vismarkt), where vendors were beginning to set up their wares of jewelry and art. I bought a ticket for one of the canal boat tours, and wandered into Burg Square and Markt Square before heading back and getting on the boat for the canal tour. The took us past many of the old buildings like the former orphanage etc, and explained about how the steepled roofs of the homes, the more steps they had, the more wealthy the owner was in the 16th century, and the more steps, the closer they could get to god. Unfortunately, there wasn't much history on this 30 minute ride. It wasn't something spectacular either, the one in Amsterdam was much better. I then walked back to my room to check out and then head back to Markt Square. I proceeded to wait another 45 minutes to climb 266 steps up the Belfry. I met a guy named Todd from Bulgaria who was living in England going to university to study molecular biology. Although the climb was steep and kept me going in circles, the view from the top was amazing and well worth the wait. Stunning is the first word I use when referring to this spectacular view. Just as I reached the bottom of the stairs, in the last 10 steps, I managed to role my ankle- I managed the previous 522 steps without any problem, and just as the stairs got better, down I went. Oh well, nothing broken at least. I just hobbled to a nearby restaurant on the square to people watch and eat french fries with mayonnaise for lunch. Afterwards I went to a small local brew house called Staminee De Garre (http://www.degarre.be/), located in an alleyway between Burg Square and Markt Square, where I enjoyed a local beer 'Staminee' which was served with cubes of gouda cheese. By the end of the beer, I didn't care about my ankle anymore. I then walked to the Church of Our Lady to see the Michelangelo Madonna with Child sculpture. It looked pretty, but it's hard to get a good grasp of the full beauty of the sculpture from 25 feet away and the statue itself is fairly small. The church itself was under a major renovation, and while I'm sure it's normally beautiful inside, it wasn't while I was there. Next I went to Memling Sint-Jan Hospitaalmuseum and pharmacy museum which was virtually across the street. This church was a functioning hospital throughout the Middle Ages, and contained a few artifacts throughout its existence. Nuns used to administer to patients there. Next to it was a pharmacy, which was fully functioning until the 1970s and was the best preserved and realistic of the exhibits. The last order of business on this trip was to have a waffle. I couldn't go to Bruges without doing all 3 of the following: drink a local beer, get Belgian chocolate, and have a Belgian waffle. I already realized I liked the beer better in Belgium than in Germany, the Belgians can adulterate it in ways they can't it Germany due to the Purity Laws, so I can enjoy cherry beer here. The chocolate that I collected was from Stephan Dumon chocolaterie (http://www.chocolatierdumon.be/). So the waffle that I got was a basic waffle, which was reheated. The waffles here are not the soft ones you have in the US. They are a bit more crunchy and sometimes have caramelized sugar on the outside, but very yummy. After savoring the waffle, I walked back to the hotel, collected my backpack and walked back through the Minnewater area and into the Beguinage (Benedictine sisters convent), before walking back to the train station. I decided to get there a bit early before my train because my feet were killing me, and I seem to be a magnet for people asking me questions. Needless to say I helped an older British couple get to their train before I left back to Bonn. That's all for this trip.