BRUGGES IN EARLY MARCH

Our return trip to Brugges, and our first Eurostar trip, was booked back in December last year. So many aspects of holidays here require advanced bookings - not only to get good prices for fares but also just to get into attractions. Castles and exhibitions often require visits to be booked not only for a specific date but also a specific time of the day. 'He who hesitates is lost' as we discovered when we missed out on the Leonardo exhibition in January by pondering dates for just two days after the tickets went on sale.

We also found that, at least with Eurostar, turning up to the station and hour ahead of schedule can lead to nail biting moments. For our first trip we arrived to large queues at London St Pancras station which lead to us boarding the train with only 10 minutes to spare. That was not as bad as on the return trip to London three days later when, at Brussels station there were so many people in the line for UK border agencies (UK immigration) that the train was delayed by 20 minutes. Had it not, we would have missed it, despite having arrived some 90 minutes before departure.

Despite all the hype we found the actual Eursotar journey a bit of an anti-climax. Maybe it would have been better in the premium class or if we had 'enhanced our experience' but in cattle class it seemed like a fairly cramped version of British national rail. At any rate after just 3 hours and one change we were in Brugges. We had briefly visited the town on our trip to Denmark last year and were so impressed we decided it was worth a return trip all of its own.

The didgeridoo guy, mentioned in the Brugges secton of our European vacation post last year CLICK HERE , was still there.

Brugges has many attractions -

                                            .......wonderful architecture and quaint streetscapes

..........traditional crafts such as lace making. Sally's Granddad - her mum's dad - used to make bobbins that are used to make lace.

......there is The Church of the Holy Blood - which holds a relic of the blood of Christ. This relic was  apparently collected by Thiery of Alsace during the 2nd Crusade (led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany in 1154). We were lucky enough to be in the church at the time when the relic was brought out for its daily 10 minute display.

The Church.

The relic of Christ's blood.

.................one of the very few Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy. The Madonna and Child was created by Michelangelo between 1501 & 1504. Reminiscent of the Pieta but much smaller, it was thought to have been originally commissioned as an altar piece by one of Brugges' leading cloth merchants. It is also the only piece to leave Italy during Michelangelo's lifetime.

The Madonna has been stolen twice; once by Napoleon's troops in 1794 then again by Nazi troops in 1944. The Nazis trucked the statue out of Brugges cushioned by mattresses in the back of a red cross truck.

............a hospital museum in one of the oldest preserved hospital buildings in Europe. The St. John’s Hospital has an evocative display of what life was like in a medieval hospital ward. The hospital was originally set up some 800 years ago and was run by nuns and monks who cared for pilgrims, travellers and the local unwell. Among its many displays were some thought provoking surgical instruments.

OUCH.

Ouch.

OUCH !!!

As with the Dutch, the Belgians speak many languages as so few people speak Flemish. We were impressed by the near perfect English skills of the staff at this rotisserie chicken shop we found. Those of you familiar with the delights of Charnwood in Canberra will know of the 'Charnwood Regal BBQ Chicken' shop much loved by West Belconians - especially our kids. BBQ chicken is not common in England - fried chicken seems to be more popular. While this shop in Brugges did not have the authentic traditional charcoal pits of Charnwood, they were a good alternative. They did pork rib racks too, which were great !

Belgium is also famous for its beer and we found a bar displaying some 1,000 different Belgian beers.

Beyond all these attractions Brugges is most famous for its many, many, many chocolate shops. The Belgians take their chocolate creations seriously, as does William. He all but ran from one chocolate shop to the next trying to decide which chocolates were the best.

THEY DO GOOD WAFFLES TOO !

As with many of our trips the rain gods seemed to be busy elsewhere. The forecast rain stayed away during our time, although it was very chilly.

 A boy and his mum.