Friday, April 17, 2009
Bruges, Belgium
What a dreadful day! Truly, one for ducks! This wasn’t the kind of day that tourists can take in their stride—when sudden downpours wet the streets but pass quickly away. This was a steady continuous drizzle that went on all morning and turned the temperature way down low. It made us feel generally miserable especially after we had stayed out for a while and our fingers started to freeze. “We”, was my pal Taraney and myself. She decided to join me on the third walking tour and proved to be great company. Travel writers/travel lovers/bloggers probably just gravitate towards each other. I discovered, before long, that she is also blogging and maintaining a journal based on her travels in Northern Europe. To reach her blog, do click on: http://itinerantaraneh.blogspot.com/
I had awoken at 7. 30 am after a very restful night. For the first time ever since I began slumming it in youth hostels around Europe, I actually slept in a 6-bedded female dorm that did not contain a snorner! You have no idea how merciful that luxury can be! Little wonder that I dressed, packed and got right down to breakfast where Taraneh joined me for muesli with milk, and a bread roll that I filled with salami, cheese and good European butter—indeed a very filling breakfast for a youth hostel. But then, the Benelux (like the Scandinavian) countries do awesome breakfasts—yes, even in the youth hostels.
The Burg and Beyond:
The weather did not stop us from taking George McDonald’s last suggested walk in Bruges entitled “The Burg and Beyond”. With these three walks, I pretty much had all of Bruges covered—minus, that is, the museums. But then I had decided that I would go to the Fine Arts Museum in Brussels and would skip the ones in Bruges (which, by the way, did not recognize my Metropolitan Museum ID card and would not give me a free ticket to enter—which the Musee Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels did!).
We left our hostel at 9 am (after I had checked out and stashed my bag in the unlocked storage area and hoped it would still be there when I returned to pick it up). Within 10 minutes, we were in the Market Square where Taraney went out in urgent search of an ATM machine. When she drew a blank, we began our walk hoping to find something subsequently. I found a flexi-magnet of Brussels in a small souvenir store where I also picked up a postcard. With that search out of the way, we started to read up about the Burg—another large cobbled square ringed by important buildings. As in Brussels’ Grande Place, these were built mainly during the Middle Ages, destroyed by the French, and then rebuilt during the Flemish Renaissance.
The Basilica of the Holy Blood and the Liberty Hall:
Our first port of call was the ornate blackened church with gilded figures adorning its façade—the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This is really two churches in one: on the bottom floor is the Romanesque St. Basil’s Chapel built in 1137-57 and wearing its age on its sleeve—it was small with low fan-vaulted ceilings and some very striking statues inside. I particularly loved the Pieta , a medieval Madonna and Child and a version of Ecce Homo, each of which occupied its own atmospheric niche.
The upper floor, reached by a spiral stone staircase had a really spectacular painted altar. In the beautiful Baroque chapel on the right side in a silver receptacle is kept a Relic of the Holy Blood in a rock crystal phial. This is occasionally brought out and displayed in the hands of one of the church’s officials who sits up on an altar where the congregation can go forward and venerate it. I had a chance to climb the stairs and kiss the relic. In the phial is a small scrap of cloth stained with the blood of Christ obtained after the Cruxificion by Joseph of Arimathea. Count Thierry of Alcase who received it as a reward for acts of bravery during the second Crusade brought it to Bruges from Jerusalem in 1149—says McDonald in his explanatory notes in his book. For me, both, seeing the relic and being able to kiss it, were uniquely blessed experiences and I was very happy indeed to have had such an unexpected opportunity.
Then we stepped inside the adjacent Town Hall (also in the Burg) where we entered the Renaissance Hall of the Liberty of Bruges. There was an entry fee that allowed visitors to walk through the well restored rooms, one of which included the main hall filled with elaborate sculpture and carvings. Since we had decided not to spend time indoors, we walked out of the Parliament Hall but not before we had a quick and quite stunning glimpse of the splendid black marble Dinant mantelpiece and fireplace with a superb carved oak-chimneypiece from 1528-9 by Lanceloot Blondeel celebrating Emperor Charles V’s victory in 1525 at Pavia over Francis I of France. This wooden sculptural group, featuring among others European monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, is so grand and so elaborate that it is said to be one of the finest in Europe.
Canal-side Bruges:
After enjoying these highlights of the Burg, we continued on our walk, which took us through Blind Donkey’s Alley and over a bridge across a canal to the Tanner’s Guildhall. A few short steps away was Rosary Quai, which affords one of Bruges’ loveliest sights—canals, waterside houses, and the Belfry. Despite the fact that it was still coming down in sheets, we enjoyed the ambience and soaked it all in.
When we traced our steps back to the colonnaded fish market where a few fishmongers were hard at their trade, we decided to walk alongside the canal, past two of the prettiest old stone bridges in the town—Meebrug and Peerdenbrug. This brought us to the almshouses named after the Pelican that adorns its front façade. I had begun to recognize these almshouses quite easily by this point: they are small, cute and have low gabled roofs.
At this stage on our route, we were tired and cold as the rain had continued incessantly. We came to the Coupure Bridge and saw the Marieke sculpture based on a song by famous Belgian signer Jacques Brel called “Ai Marieke”. A longish and then rather uninteresting walk took us past the vast Astrid Park with its gold and blue bandstand behind the Blessed Magdalen Church. Taraneh still needed an ATM that was proving to be rather elusive and it was at the Market Square that she finally found one. It was then that we decided to warm ourselves up with a bite at a cozy tea room where we shared a pot of Darjeeling.
Boat Cruise along the Canals:
A very tired Taraneh bid me goodbye at this stage to return for a nap to the hostel. It had, miraculously, stopped raining while we were at our impromptu meal and I began to think again of taking a canal cruise to receive a different perspective of the town. Making my way to the public library, I found a dry spot and ate my lunch there, then went out in search of the one of the jetties from which the boats are launched. Tourists had begun to resurface as if from under the downpour and when I did find a jetty and boarded a boat for just 6. 70 euros for the ride, it was almost 2. 30 pm.
The canal cruise was short (just a half hour long) but was one of the most delightful experiences I had in the town and one I would heartily recommend. Indeed, we passed through the same buildings, quays, islands, that we had seen during the past couple of days, but you see them from a very unique angle. I took so many pictures as I just couldn’t get enough of the charm of it all. In fact, I felt slightly at odds with the passing scenes and thought it might have been more appropriate to be dressed not in jeans and a hoodie but in a flowing black cape with hand made lace at my collar in the manner of the women in the 17th century Flemish paintings of Jan van Eyck, Van Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch! I made the discovery that in the course of my three walks, I had indeed covered every significant nook and cranny of the city and could have given a far more effective commentary than the boat driver did—he did a multi-lingual job (Flemish, French and English) but the information was far too sketchy for my liking. Indeed I had grown to love the medieval town so dearly that I began to feel rather possessive about it!
The cruise was over in half an hour and I alighted and started my walk back to the youth hostel to pick up my bags for my intended early evening return to Brussels—mainly because it was really too cold to linger outdoors for much longer. I found the consignment store again and bought myself a Burberry umbrella and then returned to the hostel where I picked up my bag and made my way to the bus stop headed to the train station—but not before I dressed more warmly and in layers—cashmere cardigan, silk scarf and warm denim jacket.
I was at Bruges station in about 20 minutes from where I boarded a train for Brussels, a ride that took an hour and wended its way deep into the heart of the Flemish countryside as seen in the landscape paintings of the Flanders School. Because it was too cold to venture out again, I opted for the 10 euro dinner being offered at the youth hostel, which consisted of a thick and very delicious vegetable soup, marinated sheesh kebabs served over wild rice and cauliflower au gratin with crème caramel for dessert. Very good value for money indeed. Well fuelled, I returned to my room to write this blog and since I was tired, all at once, I decided to do a bit of reading before falling asleep.