Tulips and Windmills

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Day 11 - April 25 Ghent and Brugge Belgium
Today we chose to go to the town of Brugge for the entire day. It was about an hour coach ride from Ghent where the ship was docked and our guide for the day, Max, used some of that time to share with us the history of Belgium. Brugge is known as the Venice of the north with so many canals as well as chocolate. There are 170 chocolate stores in the city alone! It was slightly drizzling when we arrived but by the time we all assembled ready for the walk and tour of the city it had stopped. It was a 30 minute stroll through town and we finally arrived at the area where we would board canal cruise boats for a tour of the city his waterway. By the time we boarded the boats, it started to drizzle again so up went the hood on my coat. It was a lovely way to see the city in spite of the drizzle.

We completed the canal tour, left the boat and the light rain stopped once again. We completed this portion of the walking tour at the city center square. Jim, I Bill and Jane headed off toward a street Monika our cruise director told us would be good for finding a restaurant for lunch. We found Bier Brasserrie and went inside. This restaurant was a charming local pub. We ordered cheeseburgers, French fries with the traditional side of mayonnaise and a glass of a blond Belgium beer. Delicious! It drizzled outside during our lunch but when we finished and went out it was dry and we did not see moisture from the sky again on this day.

Before we went looking for chocolate, we wanted to go The Church of Our Lady which dates mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries (often these great European cathedrals and churches take hundreds of years to build). It remains the tallest structure in the city and the second tallest brickwork tower in the world. Our quest was to see the Michelangelo sculpture "Madonna and Child" that was made out of marble between 1501-1504. The work is also notable in that it was the only sculpture by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime. The sculpture was removed twice from Belgium after its initial arrival. The first was in 1794, after French Revolutionaries had conquered during the French Revolutionary wars, it was returned after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The second removal was in 1944, during World War II, with the retreat of German soldiers, the sculpture was smuggled to Germany enveloped in mattresses in a Red Cross truck. It was discovered a year later in Altaussee/Austria and again returned. The movie "Monuments Men" told the story of this piece and all the German stolen art. The sculpture now sits in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium behind bullet proof glass. It is somewhat smaller that anticipated but still breathtaking. We were so glad that we sought out this magnificent work of art. This is something I will always remember and cherish.
We wandered town, bought some chocolate to enjoy and time was up. We had a very long walk through the cobblestone and uneven streets of Brugge to return to the coaches. After a long tiring 45 minutes we finally arrived and we're happy to take a seat and nap on the return to the River Duchess in Ghent.
We only had an hour before we needed to be in the lounge for the Belgium beer tasting with an official beer sommelier. We were really really tired from the long day and difficult walking to the coach. Hhhmmm we had to decide whether to use the hour to nap or refresh with a shower. We went for the shower.
The sommelier was a young woman and she described in great detail the beer making process. She brought 3 different beers to taste. First the Belgium blond which is what we had with our lunch and was very good. Next we tried a wheat beer that was cloudy and we thought terrible. Lastly, she brought out a dark beer that I thought would be awful but surprisingly it was also quite tasty! For non beer drinkers, it was a fun experience.
We went to dinner then to the lounge for an evening with a classical trio. We listened for a couple of songs but I wasn't feeling well so we left and returned to our cabin. Sadly, I was ill and determined it was food poisoning of some type. It was a miserable night.

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