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...

Ghent, 2015

We visited Ghent in 2013, primarily to see the Mystic Lamb, but were enchanted by the old town too, and I did three posts (http://roadeveron.blogspot.be/2013/06/ghent-sights.html, http://roadeveron.blogspot.be/2013/06/adoration-of-mystic-lamb.html, and http://roadeveron.blogspot.be/2013/06/more-ghent-art.html). I'll try to keep it to two this time. If you're looking for pix of van Eyck's masterpiece, that supreme artistic statement of Christianity in the Middle Ages, as some say, you'll find them on the 2013 posts. This time the special viewing room at St. Bavo's was packed, the staff seemed far more insistent on the rules, and I certainly did not want to get reprimanded or punished in front of what is one of my favorite paintings. On the whole, we tried to fill in some gaps in our previous visit, both in the town and in St. Bavo's, and, hopefully, there won't be too much duplication. And if there is, it's Ghent, and warrants another visit, and another....  

Welcome back to Ghent!

Another of Belgium's great bell towers

The Stadthuis...regime change in architecture

Entry to the TI, and a pretty nice canal-side
restaurant

One of many canals; large, scenic canals, not over-run with
tour-boats as in Brugge

Castle from canal

One of hundreds of old buildings

Street/canal scene

Ditto

Ditto again

And again

And again

All the walking and gawking brought on a snack attack, which
in Belgium can be dangerous

A fixer-upper, one of the first we've seen in
these urban areas

Our explorations took us into the Patershol, an old Medieval
area long associated with an hospital/orphanage; and now
home to some of Ghent's more, um, interesting restaurants (if
you can see them, note the awards...)

Part of the English menu at Vier Tafels; we
would certainly have eaten there but, a) I never
would have figured out what wine to pair with
kangaroo, ostrich, and zebra kabob, (not to
mention the crocodile), and b) they were closed

Next door, Amadeus, "The Place for Ribs," where Vicki would
have eaten

The 14th century orphanage (updated a bit), now a school

More beautiful old buildings (now restaurants)

Another canal view...the girls were going to do the canals in
these little 2-seaters...we saw them later...and they did

The Big Cannon, 1425, never fired a shot

Socialist Workers Union (left); we sat in its shadow and
enjoyed another decadent snack of vlaamse frites, two orders,
not shared

Yet another beautiful street

And Sweet P's, a retro shop for women and kids