In Bruges - Take 2

Another sunny day, this morning we started out with some exercise- walking up the 366 stairs to the top of the Belfrey in the Markt Square. A fantastic view overlooking Bruges, it can be very loud though as every quarter hour it rings, with 47 bells, the biggest 6 tonnes and over 2m wide, and also many chimes, to play 4 tunes ( one tune is 'over the rainbow') on repeat.
Later on we explored Bruges some more we went to Minnewater or The Lake of Love, which is a beautiful spot where the canal ends, and which used to be a ship dock. There is a traditional area for tending to horses at one end, as the horses used to take the freight from there, there is even a horse fountain for their water.
We also visited St Salvators Cathedral which has an amazing amount of art, tapestries, marble, silver, and the most stunning stained glass windows. They have so much art they can barely fit it all in! The church was built in 1360, destryed by lightning at some stage, then later rebuilt and then later again there was an sizable addition. So there is actually two layers of stained glass, external and internal. Around 1990 they discovered that it was built on top of a 12th Century Roman portal.
That evening we visited a trappist bar in an underground cellar with vaulted ceilings, and 27 beers on tap, a very atmospheric venue.Read more