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| Shore of the North Sea |
For my birthday weekend we visited Bruges and
Brussels. I have heard amazing things
about Bruges and wanted to see it for myself.
Bruges is sometimes referred to as "The Venice of the
North." I hope to make it to Venice
on day, but in case I don't, at least I've been to Bruges :)
We left on Saturday morning, made the five hour drive, plus
added an extra hour sitting in a stau.
When we finally arrived, we checked into our hotel. We stayed at this
hotel, which was very affordable, located in a quiet, tranquil setting, a
few minutes drive to the city center, and features an outdoor heated pool. We drove to the train station, where parking
is only €3.50/all day, and walked from there.
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| Markt Square |
We toured the city using Rick Steve's self-guided walking
tour. This was a good choice, as all of
the "sights to see" were within a 15 minute walk of each other. The tour began at Markt Square, which is lined with restaurants and is the home of
the Bell Tower (Belfort). From there we headed to Burg Square. This square takes you through several time periods,
beginning with the Romanesque Basilica
of the Holy Blood, to the Gothic-style City
Hall, to the Old Recorder's House
built during the Renaissance period, to the 17th century Baroque Provost's House, and finally to the
modern-day, newly-built Crowne Plaza. The Basilica of the Holy Blood was built by a
brave crusader to house a few drops of Christ's blood he brought from
Jerusalem. You can read more about the relic of the precious
blood here. The Crowne Plaza Hotel
sits atop some old ruins. We went inside
the hotel and into the basement where conferences are held among old brick
walls and some artifacts on display.
Next, we meandered along the canal,over a bridge, past some museums,
finally reaching the Begijnhof. The Begijnhof served the purpose of offering housing and
work to poor and elderly women, called Beguines, who sought to serve God
without having to take the same vows a nun would. The Begijnhof is made up of living quarters
and a small chapel encircling a courtyard, all surrounded by a brick wall. By the time we reached it the gates were
closed for entry, as were most places,
so we headed back toward the train station.
We ended our walk by strolling under the shade of the tress along the
path through the park, watching the swans play in the lake called Minnewater, or "Water of
Love."
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| View from the top of the brewery |
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| Their first Coke |
Early the next morning we got in our car and drove about 15
minutes to Zeebrugge, "Brugge by the Sea." I wanted to see the North Sea, and so we got
out of the car and walked closer to take a few pictures. As we walked the girls and I collected sea
shells. We walked for quite a ways, but
never actually reached the water. The
wind was blowing fiercely, which was causing the sand to sting at our
legs. We returned to Bruges, back to
the city center, to catch a few places that we didn't get to see due to early closing
times. The first place we stopped at was
De Halve Maan Brewery to catch the
tour. We have wanted to tour a brewery
and figured Belgium was the place to do it!
The kids were pretty cooperative and enjoyed a nice glass bottle of
Coca-Cola afterwards. Next on the list
was the Begijnhof. Although we saw the
grounds yesterday, the gate was not open, so this time we went in and walked
the courtyard as well as peeked inside the chapel. Our final stop in this lovely city was the Church of Our Lady. Inside this church is the statue Madonna and
Child by Michelangelo. This was carved
during the same time David was, out of the same Carrara marble. Once I checked this off my list of to-do's,
we were ready to head to our next destination:
Brussels.
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| Begijnhof |
You probably already know that Brussels is the capital of
Belgium. It is also the capital of the
European Nation. It is a big city, with
lots to see. Trying to save on money, we
opted to use public transportation (buses and the Metro) to get around rather
than the hop-on/hop-off buses. Most of
the sites are within walking distances, and the few that aren't are easy to
reach by bus. The town is divided
into two portions: the Upper Town and the Lower Town.
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| Grand Place |
We began our tour of the Lower Town in the most impressive
square I have stood in, Grand Place. We
stood encircled by colorful building such as the Town Hall, King's House,
Swan House (where a new bride and
groom were waving down at us), the City
Museum, and many lace and chocolate shops.
After grabbing a few pralines, we turned down an old shopping mall
called Galeries Royales St. Hubert.We
walked past the crowded restaurant-row,
Church of St. Nicolas, and to the Bourse (stock exchange). Our final destination was at the well-known Manneken-Pis. Just as it sounds, the statue is of a little
boy peeing, and has become an icon of the town, representing its low-key,
laidback attitude.
The following day was spent exploring the Upper town. It took us awhile to take the subway to the
bus, find the right bus, and get to the top of the hill. The bus dropped us off at the bottom of Place Royale, a circular square. A church, several museums, and the tourist
info office centered around a statue of Godfrey de Bouillon on a horse. We first went in to the tourist office to get
a map. Next, we took turns peeking into
the Church
of St. Jacques sur Coudenberg. After
that, we grabbed ice cream cones for the kiddos and headed towards the Parc de Bruxelles right across the
street, passing by the Royal Palace
along the way. It was here while sitting
on a bench that we went from having a very relaxed and enjoyable day to making
a mad-dash throughout the bustling city looking for our needle in a haystack. You see, while the kids were eating their
cones we reached for a wipe to clean the drippings off their chins, but our
bag (which included our IPad) was nowhere around. I had left it on a bus- a city bus in
Brussels around noon on a Saturday. We
went on a three hour goose chase which took us all over the city, which I will
spare you the details. The point is that
AMAZINGLY we got our backpack back, Ipad still zipped in. Whew- a sigh of relief and we continued our
city tour. We returned to Place Royale,
heading this time in a different direction.
We walked downhill past some fancy museums, wishing we had had time to check
them out. We walked through the Notre-Dame du Sablon Church, and then
over to a nearby park, Place du Petit
Sablon. This park has 48-statues
atop its wrought-iron fence and ten larger statues inside by a waterfall. Once we rested a bit, we marched over to the
Palace of Justice where we found amazing views overlooking the Lower Town. Then, our tired feet took us to Tour d'Angle, a site known as the
"Corner Tower," a surviving
section of Brussels 13-century wall, which was disappointingly under
construction. Our final stop for the day was Parc du Cinquantenaire. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Belgium
independence, King Leopold II had a huge monumental arch built at the entrance
of the park. It was quite impressive,
maybe even more so than the Brandenburg Gate in size. On the other side of the gate a festival was
happening; we grabbed a bite to eat and a cold drink before heading to the
car. With the exception of a few
museums, we were still able to see everything that we wanted to, even though it
meant arriving at home at 2 a.m.
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| A view of the Notre-Dame du Sablom church from the park |
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| Parc du Cinquantenaire |
