If it's Tuesday, this must be... (Part 1)

Aline writes: On August 4 we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel to Brussels. The Eurostar train is amazing: inside it’s a typical train, but it operates at almost two hundred miles an hour and feels as smooth as – well, you supply the simile. Just over 2.5 hours from London to Brussels, and only 20 minutes of popping ears through the Chunnel. We were delayed in Brussels due to a bomb scare when the station was evacuated; it gave us a chance to practice our pathetic French by ordering lunch at a café. We heard a muffled boom as we ate across the street, probably an abandoned package/luggage being destroyed. The station was reopened, and we took our short train ride to Bruges.

Bruges is a town untouched by time (except for the hordes of tourists like us). It’s small, but packed with interesting medieval architecture and beautiful canals. For example, this is the Market square, which reminded us of Sienna.



It's even lovelier by night





There was also another square close by called the Burg, which was smaller but charming; it included the fascinating church The Basilica of the Holy Blood.



Since we were in Bruges on a Friday, we visited the church during the weekly “veneration of the blood,” where worshippers can touch a vial holding a few drops of holy blood, brought back from the first crusade. Being raised a protestant, I wasn’t comfortable participating, but it was fascinating to watch.

There was also The Church of Our Lady, which was lovely.


We heard a choir concert there, but my favorite part was the medieval tomb paintings that they uncovered in the crypt when doing some construction work. They were remarkable with paintings of Mary, Jesus, and decorative figures. Amazingly, each tomb had to be painted within one day, since they were fresco and burial in medieval times had to be quick.





I love any town with water, and Bruges has plenty of beautiful canals. We took a cruise around the canals on one of these boats


and saw the medieval buildings from a new perspective.





Here is a close-up of an ornament on one building - the detail on these buildings is amazing!



This reminded me of Venice!



The cruise took us all the way down to the lock



We were lucky enough to see a wonderful outdoor concert in the Burg square, a Portland-based band Pink Martini. I liked them so much I bought their 2 cds when I got back to London!



Bruge was a foodie’s paradise, with waffle stands where you can get hot sticky waffles plain (the way we had them), with fruit and ice cream, or with chocolate


There were multiple chocolate shops on every block, too. It was overwhelming for a chocolate lover like me. But I limited my tasting to 3 different shops… all were delicious in different ways.

But we didn’t spend all our time eating! We also found time to see two museums: The Groeningen with art by Bosch and van Eyck, and the Gruuthusee, a 15th century palace with period furnishings. Both were wonderful collections for such a small town.

OK, now a quiz. We saw this sign in several streets in Bruge. Does it mean no children? Any ideas, let me know!!