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rowanfThis is our second day of walking around Bruges. It is as beautiful a city as I had imagined. Russell came here years ago and said I just had to see it some day so here we are. :-) Yesterday we took a canal trip. The trip itself is interesting but the commentery somewhat sparse - perhaps because it is provided in 3 languages. *LOL* Definitely worth doing though and I keep finding as we wander the city that we have already seen things from water level that we are now seeing from the land side.
Yesterday we went to the Market square and Russell climbed the 366 steps up to the top of the belfrey while I wandered around souvenier shops. They all mostly carry the same things made of lace and postcards and such. I couldn't resist a lace owl for my lapel to wear in place of the garnet one I left at home for fear of loss. It is the nicest of the owls I found and people keep commenting on it. I find that rather amazing in a city where lace is so common and it is just a tourist piece. *preen* *giggle* There are cards with these little lace things on them and we sent several off to friends.
We tried to go to the lace museum but many things here are open 10-12 and 1:30-4:00 and we hit there around 1pm. So we went to the Folklife museum and saw dioramas of old time shops and a household kitchen. The confectioner's shop was particularly interesting. Lots of specialized tools and also confections for which there wasn't an english word we recognized. What *is* a patacon? |After that museum we wandered off down canal side and ended up in a lovely cafe where we had a late lunch. Russell and I confused the waitstaff by changing places because Russell kept wanting to take my picture in a different direction to get maximum picturesque canal and bridges. :-) The food and wine are very nice here but fairly expensive. Esp the wine. It makes me very grateful to live in California, land of plentiful and inexpensive wines!
Today we went to the Church of Our Lady and saw the mausoleums of Charles the Bold and Margaret of Burgundy. They also had lots of those Dutch style triptychs where the members of the family who commissioned the religious picture are in the side wings. I just love those. I love seeing the faces of people who lived before me. Getting in touch with what people before thought and felt is one of the reasons my first profession was archaeology. I think perhaps if I had discovered Dutch portrature earlier I might have gone into art history instead. Then we went to the Gruuthuse museum which is an old manor house which holds many different collections of tapestries and household objects from medieval to about 18th c. I particularly liked the giant kitchen. I am being fascinated by kitchens this time for some reason. I have seen them in both England and Belgium and I am fascinated with how our many times great grandmothers cooked and how the technology of it changes.
And now it is about lunch time and the museums are closing and we're sitting in Coffee Link checking mail and sipping lattes. The world has gotten so civilized!
Yesterday we went to the Market square and Russell climbed the 366 steps up to the top of the belfrey while I wandered around souvenier shops. They all mostly carry the same things made of lace and postcards and such. I couldn't resist a lace owl for my lapel to wear in place of the garnet one I left at home for fear of loss. It is the nicest of the owls I found and people keep commenting on it. I find that rather amazing in a city where lace is so common and it is just a tourist piece. *preen* *giggle* There are cards with these little lace things on them and we sent several off to friends.
We tried to go to the lace museum but many things here are open 10-12 and 1:30-4:00 and we hit there around 1pm. So we went to the Folklife museum and saw dioramas of old time shops and a household kitchen. The confectioner's shop was particularly interesting. Lots of specialized tools and also confections for which there wasn't an english word we recognized. What *is* a patacon? |After that museum we wandered off down canal side and ended up in a lovely cafe where we had a late lunch. Russell and I confused the waitstaff by changing places because Russell kept wanting to take my picture in a different direction to get maximum picturesque canal and bridges. :-) The food and wine are very nice here but fairly expensive. Esp the wine. It makes me very grateful to live in California, land of plentiful and inexpensive wines!
Today we went to the Church of Our Lady and saw the mausoleums of Charles the Bold and Margaret of Burgundy. They also had lots of those Dutch style triptychs where the members of the family who commissioned the religious picture are in the side wings. I just love those. I love seeing the faces of people who lived before me. Getting in touch with what people before thought and felt is one of the reasons my first profession was archaeology. I think perhaps if I had discovered Dutch portrature earlier I might have gone into art history instead. Then we went to the Gruuthuse museum which is an old manor house which holds many different collections of tapestries and household objects from medieval to about 18th c. I particularly liked the giant kitchen. I am being fascinated by kitchens this time for some reason. I have seen them in both England and Belgium and I am fascinated with how our many times great grandmothers cooked and how the technology of it changes.
And now it is about lunch time and the museums are closing and we're sitting in Coffee Link checking mail and sipping lattes. The world has gotten so civilized!
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Date: 2003-05-09 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
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