Thursday, September 29th:
After breakfast we met our tour guide, Joyce, in the lobby of the hotel. We loaded into her SUV and headed all the way out to port town of Bruges. After about 90 minutes, we arrived in the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site where we were greeted by the overwhelming tower of the Church of Our Lady.
We walked through the Saint John's Hospital and headed right for the canal tour.
The canal tour is not handicap accessible, but the guide (and everyone else) was more then happy to help us get on the boat. I held Theo and Josh took pictures. Theo isn't a very cuddly kid with me, so I decided to soak in the goodness while I could.
We headed out and the first thing the captain told unto do was duck. No seriously, the bridges are low and you HAVE to duck!
We headed south from the dock where we quickly came to the Sashuis and the end of the canal. This beautiful house was built in 1519 right above the lock. The captain then flipped the boat around and we headed deeper into the city.
[More ducking!]
[Church of Our Lady]
The canal is lined with beautiful buildings and a lot of very old bridges.
We turned the corner and got a great view of the cathedral. This massive spire is 379 ft tall and is the third tallest brickwork tower in the world! It took 300 years to complete, which is insanely impressive considering construction started in the 1270s. The cathedral is also the home to Michelangelo's Madonna and Child. This is the only sculpture that Michelangelo made that was taken out of Italy while he was still alive. Bruges was a very wealthy city (thanks to the port) and you can tell they loved to show off their wealth by building extravagant structures.
[Chruch of Our Lady, the Gruuthusemuseum, and Boniface Bridge]
[The bridges are so old that there are stalactites hanging from them]
[Hotel De Tuilerieen]
[Belfry]
[The two small windows on the right and the two windows under them are fake. In Amsterdam you pay taxes according to the size of the front facade of your house. Here in Bruges you pay taxes according to how many actual windows you have. So these windows are fake and they don't have to pay taxes on them. But they make the house look symmetrical and more pleasing, so fake windows are added.]
At the Poortersloge we turned around and headed back to the dock.
[Dragon drainpipe]
[Old wooden houses]
After the canal cruise we went on a walking tour with Joyce through the city.
Our first stop was a courtyard next to the Gruuthusemuseum and Boniface Bridge.
Do you see that tiny window about half way up on the right side of the building?
There it is!
This museum was originally built as a house for Louis de Gruuthuse and this tiny window was allegedly used to spy on people in the courtyard below.
[Church of Our Lady and the Gruuthusemuseum]
We then carefully crossed the Boniface Bridge (it was steep and had a few steps) and entered the Arents Courtyard.
[Statues of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]
We walked along the canal and entered the Huidenvettersplien, which is an enclosed square surrounded by old guildhalls.
[Tanners guildhall]
We then crossed a canal bridge and stopped at the old gate to the Burg Square.
[Part of the old gate]
While in this alley Joyce told us about Venice glass. A lot of the windows in this area are made of glass from Venice. Since this glass was expensive, you could tell how wealthy someone was just by looking at their windows. She also told us how hard it is to live in a house that is deemed a UNSECO World Heritage Site. A lot of these houses were built in the Bruges Golden Age (12th to 15th centuries) and you are not allowed to modify the exterior of them at all. Take the windows for example. You can't make them more energy efficient (old windows are drafty), so people will build windows inside their windows that they can shut to stop the draft. It's also very hard to update the interior of the house. The doors and windows are so small that it's difficult to get new furniture or appliances into the homes. You can't modify the windows or doors, so how do you get a new couch in there?
We then passed through the old gate and found ourselves...
...in the Burg Square!
[Tiny black building on the left: 12th century Basilica of the Holy Blood, Building on the far right: 17th century Provostry of St Donatian]
[14th century City Hall]
[Left: 18th century manor of Brugse Vrije, Right: 16th century Old Civil Registry]
This beautiful square has buildings from the 12th to the 18th century. I love how you can see history just by looking at the architecture.
We then walked down the Breidelstraat to the Market Square. This larger square is home to the 13th century Belfry. This 272 ft tower houses 47 bells and leans slightly to the east (definitely not as noticeable as other leaning towers).
[Market Square]
It stared raining right when we entered Market Square, but the timing was perfect because it was lunch time! We ate lunch in a local restaurant that could accommodate Theo's wheelchair.
After lunch we walked back through the city towards Saint John's Hospital (where our SUV was parked).
[One last view of the Church of Our Lady]
We hopped in the SUV and headed back inland towards Ghent.
[You think gas is bad here? This is liters.]
It rained most of the 45 minute drive to Ghent, but the sun came out right when we arrived.
Ghent is another important middle-age port city with plenty of UNESCO World Heritage Site's.
We made our way though the city and came upon the Gravensteen (Castle of the Counts). This 12th century castle is just sitting in the middle of a busy area with trains and bikes going by it like it's no big deal!
We then walked over to the Graslei. This beautiful area is located right on the bank of the Leie river and was very important during the Middle Ages when Ghent was the center of the wheat trade in Flanders.
[Old Guildhalls]
At the end of the Guildhalls is the old 1898 Post Office. It is now a mall and a hotel with a fancy suite in the bell tower.
[1898 Post Office]
We turned the corner and came upon "Ghent Tower Row," where you can see the Saint Nicholas Church (front), the Belfort (just to the right of the church), and Saint Bavos Cathedral (the lone tower to the right)
[13th century Saint Nicholas Church]
[Look at all those bikes!]
[Back of the Saint Nicolas Church]
We walked pass the church and made our way to the Stadshal where we could get a good view of the Belfry. The Stadshal was constructed in 2012 and is extremely out of place. It looks like an upside down boat. The only nice thing about it is the piano under the pavilion. When we walked by there was a man playing "Somewhere Out There" and it was lovely.
[Left: Stadshal, Right: Belfry]
We then walked over to St Bavo's Cathedral. This 13th century gothic cathedral stands at 292 ft and was built on top of the 10th century chapel of St John the Baptist.
Our second to last stop in Ghent was the Van Hoorebeke Chocolatiers shop. We got chocolates and hot chocolates, which was some of the best I've ever had!
[Making fresh chocolates in the basement]
On our way out of the city we walked through the Graffiti Street. This long alley way was designated by the city to be an art area. Artist can tag the walls without fear of consequences. This reminded me of similar alley ways that we saw in Melbourne. The city officials feel like it's better to set aside areas where artist can freely express themselves and then maybe they won't tag the beautiful monuments throughout the city.
It took us about an hour to drive back to Brussels due to traffic and street changes in Brussels. Joyce told us that recently the city decided to just change the directions that the streets go. So, streets that were one way streets going this way are not one way streets going that way. She said it is really confusing especially since the GPS and Google Maps haven't been updated. She said the city did it because they want to make it harder to drive in the city and they feel like this will encourage more people to walk or ride bikes. Oh goodness.
On the way back to the hotel Joyce asked us where we wanted to go on our next big trip. Josh said Iceland and she immediately handed him her business card. She said that she's done a lot of guided trips out to Iceland and we should give her a call when we know what dates we want to go. Sounds like an adventure to me! She was our favorite tour guide so far, so I wouldn't mind spending a week with her in Iceland!
Once we got back to the hotel we headed to Royal Gallery to get more chocolates and macarons. We then walked down the Rue des Bouchers to get some dinner.
Overall Brussels was a very pleasant surprise! We were told mixed things by friends and family, but I am so glad that we went. Out of all the places we visited so far I would have to say my favorite was Luxembourg City followed very closely by Bruges. I just can't get over the amazing architecture!
I hope you have enjoyed our adventure so far! Stay tuned because our next stop is Amsterdam!
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