Saturday, Another rainy morning. This afternoon the rain abated and we decided to go to a small city about a 45 min drive from us. Kortrijk is quite old I think 12 century. But has been destroyed in many wars. The latest in 1944 when it was a main railroad terminus for the German army. I believe the RAF dropped over 5000 bombs on it in one night. Not too much left. Except the city hall and a few churches. The one area I thought was interesting is the Beguinage. It is a cluster housing paid for by benefactors and facilitated by the Catholic Church to house widowed women (caused basically by the death of their husbands during the wars) They did not want to take religious vows as nuns in a convent, These were started
... read more
