Day 9: Ghent to Bruges

September 4, 2023

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Ghent has lots of wonderful rivers running though it, and it turned out that our way to Brugge followed one of them all the way. Ok so now I see it was called the Ghent-Brugge canal. Figures!

The canal, of course, had a bikeway all along it, and there was consistent signage saying we are on two named bike routes. It didn't really matter, because it was all so easy to follow.

Although we have always thought of Netherlands as the centre of bike friendliness, Belgium is right up there.

The bikeway featured riders of all sorts, from doddery old timers like us, to many single males blasting along on road bikes. At one point we were left in the dust by a man in a wheel chair, with hand cranks.

I feel this must be really hard on the shoulders.

There we also several fast moving peletons. They make an impressive whirring sound. The riders are also usually very close together, so it requires skill for all not to go flying.

The canal provided a marine environment, where we could watch boats and barges, and also a few types of water birds.

This cormorant is not a dark as usual. The cormorant seems to be talking to a "duck"? What is that guy?

A Coot, with its characteristic white nose, and it seems. red eyes.

There were farms along the way, and a bit of industry, but generally the environment felt "suburban". The houses were solid and clean. In fact they were notably clean. No lawn mowers, bikes, hoses, or anything left lying about. In one section it was clearly garbage day, and the garbage looked so orderly! I was "outraged" when we came upon a cardboard box left open. Everything else like that was taped up!

As we reached the outskirts of Brugge, we could spot some fancier housing. For example, how abut this for a home that's a castle?

Of course, if you are short on money you can live in row housing. But I would still choose the turret.

We quickly crossed into the old town, and were plunged into a world populated by lots of people enjoying walking around, and streetscapes that looked like they had been designed by Disney.

It's going to get more crowded and more quaint from here on in to the Markt.

Lots of people, but not actually a ravening hoard.

Our hotel was 400 meters from the Markt, so it was still squarely in the old town. Just how old, we could see from adjacent buildings. One was a convent, with the date 1383 on it. And on another part of the building, the date 1634.

This was probably an alms house, associated with the convent.

Then just down the street, the St. Jacob of Meerdere church. Although a large and elaborate building, this would never figure in a tourist guide - it's just one of many amazing structures in the town. But I mean, it was built in 1240, and expanded in 1459!

We stashed our stuff and set off on foot, past the convent and the church, and into the movie set -playland that is central Bruges.

Aha, that tower is a famous carillon. You can walk up it, 366 steps, and listen to the bells from close up.

We have arrived in the central Markt. This has to be one of the most colourful and unique ones going.

This is perhaps my best shot from the Markt. It mimics images that often appear on postcards from Brugge.

Aside from the astounding architecture, the Brugge core has lots going on in terms of people watching, interesting shops, restaurants, chocolate shops, waffle shops, Belgian fries, bikes everywhere, and so on.

One attraction was this hand cranked organ player, Maurice Wouters. He responded to our donation into his box by asking where we were from, and then putting on and singing something "North American" in our honour - "That's Amore", made famous by Dean Martin.

In the people watching department, these were interesting for being all white. I didn't get to walk around the other side of them to guess what they are about.

Kathleen Classen commented yesterday that she has a "Manneken Pis" perfume atomizer that she treasures. So we thought of bringing her another of the statues, of which this corkscrew would be the classic example. But at the last moment we realized that it would likely get snatched at airport security. But anyway, Kathleen, here is the photo!

One of the more exciting things in the square is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This was created before 1400 to preserve a relic which is a vial with blood soaked cloth, presumed to originate with Jesus. The idea of having this is pretty exciting, exceeding no doubt yesterday's "Mystic Lamb", bt I especially like the vibrant decoration inside the basilica.

The basilica is in the corner, on the left.

I just like the green columns and zig zag decoration.

Devotees can go up to where the priest is sitting and say a prayer with the holy blood.

Each year on Ascension Day, since 1304, the Blood leaves the basilica fr a procession through the town. This must be a pretty exciting event.

Just beside the Holy Blood basilica is the St Basilius basilica. This contains some fairly scary cruxifiction statues. There is a relic of the saint in there somewhere too. This place is also about 800 years old!

Lightening the experience, we walked back out through the square, checking out the very many chocolate shops.

Chocolate shops are lined up everywhere.

We also decided on our third trial of Belgian fries. The shops try to enliven the experience by adding many possible ingredients in top, labeled in the shop we tried "dirty fries". But we were sticking to the pure product. In fact this time we also avoided any of the offered sauces. They add a lot of cost anyway - for example ketchup is 1 euro!

Our sample of fries was literally identical to the other two tries we have done. They are very good.

Clearly not satisfied with the nutritional completeness of our fries, we moved on to one of the many ice cream shops. We both got speculaas flavour, of course, and the quality was great. (3 euros per scoop). More thorough researchers would also have tried the waffles, which would have looked like this:

Our walk through the town was 5 km. Really fun. We are glad we hit town with enough time to look around!

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Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 335 km (208 miles)

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Kelly IniguezI'm giving Jacinto the pep talk about including Belgium next summer! He said he ate enough fries in Spain to last him a year or two, that wouldn't be an attraction to get him to visit. However, he is open to trying anywhere new, so Belgium might make the list!
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8 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kelly IniguezYou started in Spain with so many hills right away. It would be a big change here - so flat! Perhaps Belgium could also attract Jacinto with beer?
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8 months ago