Veurne

After two nights at Klein Strand, outside Bruges, we continued our southwesterly course. Vicki had found a free camper-stop at the jachthaven in Veurne, a beautiful little town a few miles down from Niuewpoort and the coast. We spent two more nights there, after a day of exploring the town and an administrative day.

Jachthaven Veurne; the area is covered in old canals, once
commercial, now largely leisure and recreation

Panning around the grote markt: the bell tower and the St.
Walburga church

Panning further

More beautiful old buildings and the tower of St. Nicholas church,
whose carillon provided mood music all Sunday afternoon

A sight not often seen, a horse-drawn tram

St. Walburga's, a 15th century brick Gothic

Interior, facing the altar

Beneath a great 16th century carved pulpit,
St. John gets the Word

Have to pay to get out...of Purgatory; note
cleverly placed fire extinguisher

What's interesting about St. Walburga is that, sometime after the
Reformation, they lopped off the nave of the church to make
this cistern...

Veurne's bell tower, one of several in Flanders
that comprise a World Heritage Site

Aviary behind the stadthuis

Former religious house for sale

Rilke slept here...

Well, in the building on the right, which also housed King
Albert's command staff for a time in WWI

The war did not get to Veurne, although very close; with the
centennial well underway there is a great deal of attention to
that conflict, especially here in Flanders fields

But now, beautiful sounds and sights all around

Thus

Beautiful little place we may well visit again

Bruges, 2015

We visited Bruges in 2013, saw its two great museums and walked around a good bit. This year we wanted a more leisurely visit to the great city but also an opportunity to see the one important art work we missed last time...Michaelangelo's Bruges Madonna. We stayed at the Klein Strand campground again in 2015, a short bus ride from the centrum. We still haven't gotten that bus ride quite right, but we're getting closer.

Panning around Bruges' great square

Thus

And thus

The great bell tower

Many lace and fine sewing shops

Artsy view of the Stadthuis

Disused Medieval bridge, now a welcome little rest area on a
canal

 Bruges is fairly over-run with tourists, especially Americans,
and they all do the canal boat rides

"Not another blaring tour boat!"

City of spires

Fish market of yore

Town map done in a lace-look

Speaking of which, here's the lace lady doing a demonstration;
I video'd a bit of it, until my head exploded, which I'll post to
YouTube shortly; the demonstration, that is; the video is at
http://youtu.be/B19AFILy4Bk

St. Mary's Church

Inside of which resides the Bruges Madonna, the only work of
Michaelangelo's to leave Italy during his lifetime

He did it just after the Pieta

Unlike any other Madonna and child done up
until that time, whether in stone or paint

Canal scene

A few of Belgium's 1000 beer brands and types

Swan island

In  Bruges' Beginhof, older women's residence; the tree-houses
were someone's idea of an artistic statement

The Maison Blanche, an older house now a fairly exclusive
hotel; and the lovers' bridge

Garden

View from the bridge

Painted Alley In Ghent

So far in the Netherlands and in Belgium we have seen very little--almost none--tagging, or graffiti, as it used to be called. But then we saw this interesting alley in Ghent that went on and on and on...

Bicycle Riding Class in Ghent Brugge

So we're camped (two nights) at Ghent Bruges's nice, free,
camper-stop, a short bus ride (#3) from the city...

And, walking back from the teen club where I have been
mooching wifi, I notice a guy setting up a course in the big
parking lot (it's an athletics center) and then 40-50 little
kids arriving on their bicycles

If you're Flemish, you better know how to ride a bicycle...
well...

One of the two classes goes for a walk in the park

While the other lines up and receives instruction and then

Does the course! What a treat to watch...

Ghent, St. Bavo's, 2015

Someday I'll get a proper afternoon shot of St.
Bavo's west facade; someday, they'll have the
scaffolding down 

Nice windows for a younger Gothic

The starboard bow chapel with the Life-Sized Exact Replica
(really very good) is now reserved for guided tour groups;
fine, that keeps them away from the real thing

Spare parts chapel

Another nice window

So here's this guy playing a beautiful harp,
beautifully, in a beautiful, large,  chapel, a
bishop's busker, I guess, selling his CDs for
20E, with a portion going to the church, I
hope

For the indigent, or those who don't really care (why are they
here?), there is a tiny, somewhat worn, working replica in a
chapel over on the port side, amidships

Rubers' Entry of St. Bavo into Ghent, which we
totally missed last time

Muy importante..if you're planning on visiting
Ghent to see the Lamb, beware the schedule
above: they're restoring it, in stages, through
the next several years; if you're a casual art
lover, such as I am, this shouldn't matter, since
no one would allow a copy that was not perfect;
nonetheless...

Old painting around the church

Interior of the tower renovation

Something else we missed in 2013 (we had a ferry to catch):
Georges Verbanck's massive monument to the van Eyck
brothers in the park just a few meters from St. Bavo's; "Adoration
of the van Eyck's," it might be called; I, for one, remain
skeptical about the existence of Hubert van Eyck...