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Published: March 1st 2009
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Happy Birthday Nadia! Today, on the November 1, 2008 we went to Brugge. Bruges (Dutch: Brugge) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country. The historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is egg-shaped and about 430 hectares in size. Its actually very pretty - a real romantic city in Belgium. Me personally - I rate it more than Brussels. Even though it was rainy when we got there and not the best of weather we still had a really good day. We got the train from Anterwerp - via Gent Sint Peters. I decided this would be the port of call tomorrow.
We made our way to the old town and wow talk about picture postcard views. Definitely a location to go on some sort of anniversary or something with a partner. And generally I think in any conditions. Just remember to bring an umbrella - which as usual I think we forgot this time round. Anyways we walked around according to the use it maps. These maps were the bomb - and I stuck to
it religiously - probably not to dads liking but still…
We took a canal cruise around the city and the guide was quite good - he talked in English, Spanish and French - though I felt like he was a bit pushy when asking for the tips. After the canal cruise we visited the museum of St John's Hospital.
In front of Our Lady's church stands the large complex of the medieval St. John's hospital, one of the oldest still existing hospitals in Europe. In 1978 it lost its function as hospital and harbors now the Memling museum, the hospital museum and the old pharmacy.
The oldest known document with rules for the hospital dates from 1188. It shows that the 'brothers and sisters' of the hospital did not really belong to a religious order with strict rules. In this respect, they did not make vows like other religious orders. This changed in 1236 when the bishop of Tournai insisted that the brothers and sisters made vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. They were also then obliged to wear a religious habit. It was only in 1459 that bishop Chevrot succeeded in transforming the lay order of brothers and
sisters of St. John's hospital into a real religious order with formal vows. The reason why the occupants of the hospital accepted this was political : by placing themselves under the authority of a religious institution they could diminish the power of the city's magistrate and Duke Philip the Good.
The museum was pretty interesting and we ended up circling that museum for about 2 hours or so - and escaping the rain which was pretty sweet we went on to view the rest of the town.
After walking around past other museums we decided to visit the Our Lady's church. The church has some nice art treasures, of which the crowning glory is definitely the beautiful ‘Madonna and Child’ by Michelangelo.
I was so keen to follow the use it map that I wanted to go past this bakery and oh I wanted to go to this restaurant they really recommended to try some sort of rabbit dish which was traditionally Belgium. And the result… well we ended up trudging through the rain for nearly an hour and to the restaurant being closed. Well we were in significant hunger mode by now and well not in the best
of spirits. I managed to guide us back to the main town centre … and we even found a pub that had some mussels and the Brugge brew on tap - still willing to serve us lunch at 3pm. It was there that I discovered the frites sauce that I so loved was actually mayonnaise.
But I’m pretty sure the mayonnaise back in Australia is not as good as this bad boy…
Anyways well fed we made our Belgian chocolate purchase - from that brand you see everywhere Leonardos - probably the biggest tourist rip off- cause let me tell you they were pricey but dad didn’t mind. Then we made our way wearily back to the station. Of course we had to stop and get some waffles just before the train station and they were - well what can I say - delicious. It was nice to get to the station and see the multitude of bikes stacked there - ahh Amsterdam. All in all what can I say I love Brugge!
To see more photos of Brugge, please click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dkruchkoff/InBrugge01112008?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ_jzuSAz4v3ggE&feat=directlink
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