We went to Brugge yesterday with the guys from Catholic University. On Monday night we said we would all meet at the train station for the 9:30 train. Alex and I went to buy tickets, but no one else came because they were too hung-over. We walked back to the Institute and found out that everyone decided to meet for the 10:30 train without telling us. So, we immediately walked back to the train station to get our train. This is not a short walk either…it is roughly a mile and a half.
On the train there was a lady talking really loudly in Flemish. Since I don’t know Flemish, I couldn’t tell her to be quiet. People in Flanders don’t like when you talk to them in French, so I figured it would only be worse if I told her in French. We eventually fell asleep on the train and made it the Brugge around noon. For those of you who are too lazy to look up where Brugge is, it is about 30 kilometers from the North Sea in northwest Belgium. We live in central Belgium just east of Brussels.
It was cold and rainy in Brugge, but this kind of added to the mood because the city is very medieval. It was cool to see the buildings and old churches in the gloomy weather. Our first stop was the Eglise de Notre Dame or the Church of Our Lady. Apparently it is supposed to be a rather simple church, but that’s not what we thought. The art was beautiful and there are many side altars to Mary. The back of the church was under renovation, but the rest of it was amazing. One of the side altars featured a really cool statue called Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. I’ve never seen a Michelangelo up close, so it was really amazing to see.
Town square in Brugge is one of the bigger one’s I’ve seen in Belgium. The town itself is much like Leuven except that there are a lot of bridges, which accounts for it being called Brugge. Brugge means bridge in Flemish. In this sense, Brugge is often referred to as the Venice of the North. Also, it holds the name of European Capitol of Culture. There is a lot of art in Brugge which helps explain this. However, one piece of art in particular is really dumb. It’s called the Car Wash and was done by a Japanese art to commemorate Brugge’s 200th anniversary as European Capitol of Culture. I have a picture of it and you can judge for yourself. I tend to agree with the locals that it is really ugly.
In Brugge, you can also find the Basilica of the Holy Blood. It is not a very impressive building from the outside, tucked between the Burg and a restaurant. However, on the inside, you can find a relic of Jesus’ blood. When we got there, the priest was about to start veneration of the relic. We didn’t plan to go at this time, but as we were saying a prayer over some candles we lit, the priest started the ceremony. He said that we could come up and venerate the relic if we wanted. This was probably one the most amazing spiritual experiences I’ve ever had. To be touching the blood of Jesus is something I will never forget.
To end the day, we visited another church called St. Mary Magdalene’s. It is a typical gothic church from the outside, but when you go inside, it is a different story. There is a pond in the middle of the sanctuary and a raised platform around the pond where people can sit on cushions and reflect. We were really confused by the whole thing, but we asked the guy sweeping the floor and he said the church started a project called Yot in 2002. The goal is to bring people together from different churches and different faiths to have one place to reflect and meditate. The goal is to get back there for services before we leave Europe.
Other than that, we did laundry for the first time today. That was quite the process that I don’t have time to explain right now. We are heading to Germany tomorrow for the weekend. Hopefully the language barrier won’t be too bad. I’ll let you know.
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