Day 48 - Ghent & Bruges

Today we had breakfast in our hotel, Erasmus Hotel, around us is the history of the hotel and in the centre of the rear windows of the dining room is a suit of armour. I didn’t get the chance to ask the owner the back history, as she talked a wee bit like a posh robot so figured I needed to keep my brain cells for later.

We left the bags at the hotel and had a wonder around Ghent, no real plan just walk along the streets and admire the architecture. With the change of weather my hairy legs haven’t been keeping the warmth I am used too and wanted a fashionable change from jeans. I ended up buying a pair of cargo pants for me as again, NZ & Aus don’t get half the stuff they have here.
We ended up at Vrijdagsmarkt which is an open air market place, Katie and I were getting hungry and saw a food truck selling bratwurst. So we had to get one for each of us.
We walked around a little more and opted to head for Bruges, so we collected the bags, jumped on the tram to the station.

We opted to catch the bus to the AirBnB after seeing some rain on the train and no doubt I would encounter more typical European streets with the bags in tow!

We dropped the bags off and seeing they were still cleaning the AirBnb (we were early only dropping off the bags) we went for a walk. We figured our aim was Markt Square of Bruges… we never made it there on this walk though… As we were taking the easy 10 or so minute stroll in, we were admiring the street and I could smell the most beautiful smell in the world… WAFFLES! These weren’t just any waffles, this is Lizzie’s Waffles, the waffles are Extra Large and take up somewhat of a standard plate. We got the Waffle with fresh strawberries & homemade chocolate sauce. I also had to try a local Blonde beer, a Brugse Zot. After this intake of average calories of a adult for the day, we went back to the airbnb to relax.

At 5pm I had booked us onto a walking tour of Bruges, We met in Markt Square under the famous Belfry Tower. We met our guide Pascal who was a very energetic guide who loved Bruges and Belgium in general, also really disliked the French so big tick there! We started off learning about how the open air Markt came to be from the traders and then how they built Belfort to use as a market instead of the main open air market. The belfry was added around 1240, when Bruges was an important centre of the Flemish cloth industry. After a devastating fire in 1280, the tower was largely rebuilt. The city archives, however, were forever lost to the flames. The octagonal upper stage of the belfry was added between 1483 and 1487, and capped with a wooden spire bearing an image of Saint Michael, banner in hand and dragon underfoot. The spire did not last long: a lightning strike in 1493 reduced it to ashes, and destroyed the bells as well. A wooden spire crowned the summit again for some two-and-a-half centuries, before it, too, fell victim to flames in 1741. The spire was never replaced again, thus making the current height of the building somewhat lower than in the past; but an openwork stone gothic inspired rooftop was added in 1822.

We moved onto the facade of Gruuthusemuseum which is now the museum for all of ancient Bruges. This used to be a palace for a family that controlled the canals adjacent to the palace. We moved onto the Church of Our Lady, well the outside of it as it was shut, this has the marble statue carved by Michelangelo (Another Church Katie!). Next to the church is one of the oldest hospitals in Europe, they are unaware of the official date built as the documents were destroyed in the Belfry fire. The hospital is where the Nun’s used to run the pharmacy and help the sick. Also when the church stopped allowing Monk’s to perform surgeries on people, Barber’s started to learn medicine as they were already for with a knife, this is why Barber’s poles used to white and blue showing he could do both.
We walked over to ‘Lover’s Bridge’ or it’s actual name, Boniface Bridge, this is called Lovers Bridge for the romantic views of the canal and town which couples come and take many photos on. Only issue is that Bruge was fairly poor in the early 20th century, when they made this bridge they had to reuse some materials… like headstones from the church cemetery straight in front of it… Romantic! We got taken to the ‘postcard view’ of Bruges at Rosary Quay, looking out towards the canals and can see the Belfry Tower & bell tower of Church of Our Lady. The tour ended in front of the Bruges City Hall which was built in 1376, this tour was really entertaining thanks to the guide being such an entertaining guy!
Next to City Hall is the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which is a church (Think this is church number 4 we could see Katie?) which houses a phial claimed to contain a cloth with Jesus’s own Blood on it.

After the tour we were pretty hungry so we opted for a place recommended by the guide and going to one of the smaller squares for dinner. We ended up at t’Lammetje where Flemish Beef Stew was on order for me, Salmon for Katie.

We ended the night with another Malteser McFlurry, yes I had not eaten or drunk enough at this point! Walked back to the accomodation and our view from our window has the Belfry Tower, Bell Tower of the Church of our Lady & the Bell tower of Sint-Salvatorskathedraal. We could hear numerous bells through out the town!Meer informatie