Greetings from Belgium!

This last weekend was Ruth's birthday, so to celebrate we escaped to Belgium for a for a four day weekend. We stayed in Brugge (pronounced BROO-ghah in Dutch or Broozh in French & English). It is a beautifully preserved Gothic city with canals, gilded architecture and lots of chocolate!

The Belfort (the tower in the background) offers the best views over Brugge. We climbed the 366 steps to the top and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. The medieval tower, finished in 1300, houses the former city treasury and its chimes are famous around Europe thanks to the 47 bells in the tower.


We took a canal boat cruise. The city is very lovely, and looks like a movie set. The canals were not as prominent as we had anticipated, since it competes with Amsterdam for the title "Venice of the North". In Brugge, the canals are more hidden and tucked away, rather than in Amsterdam were they truly shape the city. However, we agreed we can't award that title until we have actually seen Venice for ourselves.




We tasted lots and lots of chocolate!!! On our first night in Brugge we counted over 25 different chocolate shops on our walk to dinner. We were able to narrow down our favorites to two family owned chocolate shops and managed to visit them both every day. Until last Friday, I did not think it was possible to overdose on Chocolate- but it is!

Here we are enjoying our favorite: amaretto and marshmallow chocolate. A fancy s'more!


The Church of Our Lady is evidence of Brugge's wealth and power during it's heyday in the 14th century. Inside is Michelangelo's Madonna & Child which he worked on in between his masterpiece David. It is the only work of Michelangelo's to leave Italy during his lifetime.

We also toured the Groeninge Museum, consisting of Flemish masterpieces. All the artwork from that area was a result of the patronage of the Catholic church. The majority of works were on the cusp of the Renaissance period, and you could see its origins in the Flemish art.

The Basilica of the Holy Blood is another church we visited that was built in 1150 by a crusader to house the drops of Christ's blood, which he had brought back from Jerusalem. Regardless of whether the legend is accurate, it was humbling to visit a site of pilgrimage for many people.



Outside of the historic political and civic heart of the city. Surrounding us is 10 centuries of different architecture.









One of our days we took a train to the nearby town of Gent, Belgium, which is larger than Brugge but smaller than Brussels. They also are known for having beautiful canals and architecture. Unfortunately the day we were there was like a Seattle winter's day. We took refuge in their historic bell tower. They rang their largest bell, which is nearly 15 feet across, while we were standing next to it. It is one of the purest ways to hear the full overtone series of sounds made by nature, and was truly a unique experience. You can see Brent standing next to some of the smaller bells on display in the tower.

In Gent, we also visited the Castle of the Counts, a forbidding, gray fortress which was built by the count of Flanders, Philip of Alsace, in 1180. The castle contains a crypt, a dungeon, and an exhibition of historical weapons and medieval torture methods...very enlightening. Unfortunately, our camera battery died hence no pictures. :)

We really needed a change of scenery, and this was a great first European getaway, being only a 4 hour train ride away. We're still awaiting our internet connection and hope it will arrive within a couple weeks. We're posting from the library, and they've asked us to leave. Sorry for the brevity of this post. More on Amsterdam to come!