Thanks, Andre! Belguim, Beautiful Brugge
Andre is back in Belguim after several years absence and is enjoying playing the part of the tour guide, exploring places he hasn't been to in years. We are happy for his great stories and knowledge of the places to say nothing of his driving us here and there! Brugge, like many of the older cities, has a town center where all the beautiful buildings and history are; so when you are driving in it looks like a typical city until you get to the city center and you know you are in the old part.
Brugge dates back to around the 14th century and is an ancient lace making center. Andre bought a map so we could read about some of the places we were looking at. At one time the sea reached all the way to Brugge and it was a seaport with a harbor. The streets are cobbled and many of the buildings are crooked and very old looking! We walked around a bit strolling past lace shops, mug shoppes, tourist shops, small cafes and the like.
Stopped at outdoor cafe, Maxmillan which is near one of the small parks with canal running through it and swans all about. The horse carriages come right past and it was a very romantic, if not typical European feel. This is a very historical building with a story of the history of Brugge and the swans. Did not write all the information down but part of the history of Brugge deals with the fact that the swans are an ancient part of their history and evidently at one time the swans had numbers written onto their bills.
After our stop at Maxmillan, we walked back to the town center. They have an area where they have outdoor events and this is where the carriage rides begin. We decided to go on one. As you go along, they give you a history of the place--quite interesting. We past a series of old houses, quite small, that had been built as almshouses for the poor by the rich. All the poor had to do was pray for the rich to be able to live there! Today these homes are used for the elderly. The variety of architecture was very interesting. We past buildings that had window boarded up or painted over. This was because you were taxed on the number of windows you had, so too high taxes, board up a window!
After our carriage ride, we continued walking. Stopped at a park with outdoor cafes and had another type of beer and watched people. From there we decided to go on a boat ride to get a different perspective of Brugge. As luck would have it, we managed to catch the last boat ride of the day. During the high season, there are usually 50 boats running up and down the canals but we were one of the only ones out!
The driver pointed out some of the different types of architecture, period pieces including an old wooden house that dates to the 1400's and is one of the oldest left in the town center. He also showed us some of the buildings that are still painted the original red which is actually a stain made from oxen blood.
After our boat ride we decided to find a place to eat near the canals where we could watch the sunset. Found a place called 't Huidevettersuis which according to their sign "served the most delicious Flemish and Burgundian dishes" in 17th century halls. It was what they said and we could see the sunset on the church steeples. Robert had the rabbit stew, which is a regional dish and was quite good. Andre had the Flemish ham--huge portion; another regional dish.
All in all, Brugge was a quite enjoyable outing!
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