We were in Bruges with Grandma Suzie Friday to Sunday in mid-October (she flew home that Monday morning). Bruges is a fantastic city. It has the best preserved examples of gothic architecture—the whole historic center is a Unesco World Heritage site. I assume this means everything inside the old city walls. It’s one of the places I could go again and again. This was our second time. We were last in Bruges in Sept 2009. It was the first trip we went on after moving to Europe.
We got there much, much later than expected. Drive took two hours longer than it should have. Thank you, Brussels traffic. Note to self: take the northern, Antwerpen route next time.
Friday night we ate at a great (but crazy expensive) restaurant on the Markt. I had the 3-course menu with mussels, cod and ice cream. Next time I’ll be braver and try the river eel.
It started pouring just as I was about to try out Matt’s new monopod. I had wanted to open up the aperture, set the camera to infinity setting and try for some cool light effects. Something I haven’t done since high school photo class. Not sure how to even do that on my camera.
Saturday we walked to the market in t’Zand square down the street from our hotel. There was a giant, naked man floating above the square. No idea why; I did see it on the cover of the paper the next day, but it was in Dutch.
The market was typical stuff: clothes, fruit, flowers/plants/bulbs, cheese, fish, meats, rotisserie chicken, etc. (Photos below.) The flowers and fruit were off one of the side streets in another area. And that’s where the chickens, geese, ducks and the rabbits were. Jacob really liked looking at the animals. The bunnies were 5€ and the and a lot of the birds insanely cheap too. Now, I have no idea whether these were for pets, for eggs or for dinner.
We went back to the hotel to drop off our purchases (1€ boxes of chocolates!), dry our clothes (it rained) and then headed out to shop and sight see. Beer highlights: found some 2006 Drie Fonteinen Oude Gueuze (mixed in with the 2009 vintage), 2005 Drie Fonteinen Vintage Oude Gueuze and, later, a ton of interesting glasses marked down to 25 cents. I intend to sell the glasses on eBay; Matt wants to keep them.
The Groeninge Museum was closed again. Last time, it was for renovations. This time, they were preparing to open a Van Eyck exhibit. Maybe next time…
Sat nite Matt and I went to ‘t Brugs Beertje (in English: Bruges Bear). Grandma Suzie babysat the kiddos. Nice place. A few taps and a wide selection of bottles, but not a ton we haven’t had before. I suppose that’s a caveat of living so close to Belgium. Not all together a terrible problem to have. The Bear didn’t have the Rodenbach Vin de Cereale I was hoping for (they once did according to a Beer Advocate’s review), but I’d go back again.
Sunday was sunny and beautiful (naturally, since we were leaving). We dropped the bags in the car, walked to Astrid Park, and played on the playground next to the park and Magdalena church.
M O R E P H O T O S
From Bruges Oct 2010. Shot Oct 15-17, 2010. Bruges, Belgium
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