L’Eglise Notre Dame is a great lump of masonry, extremely impressive from the outside but strangely bereft inside. It is undergoing major renovation, so there is scaffolding everywhere. It does have a couple of real treasures. There is a Michelangelo Madonna and Child carved in white marble, claimed to be the only Michelangelo outside of Italy. It was commissioned for a church in Siena, but bought for a good price by a Belgian royal and ended up here. There is also a huge canvas by Caravaggio. For the moment the place needs every tourist euro it can get to do urgent maintenance. The huge belltower next to it is not open to the public (that’s the one that featured in the In Bruges movie – so no chance really of jumping from it!).
The Cathedral of Our Saviour lies at the centre of the city. It too is undergoing restoration work. I watched a couple of experts in white coats working under flood lights to restore a faded and damaged fresco on one of the chapel walls. Must cost a fortune to keep these places going.
The Market Place is a very lively square; on one side a row of cafes; opposite, the State House; and to the left, the Belfry and Halls. The carillon in the belfry was giving quite a performance at lunch time, so I sat and listened for a while. I lined up to get a ticket to go see the view from the top – only to discover that there is no lift: “360 steep narrow steps that require considerable energy” was the warning sign at the ticket office. I turned away disappointed: no way could I manage that lot today!
The so-called State House is a delightful medieval building that has been added to and modified over the centuries. It has an art gallery, and for a price you can go sit in a chair in the Aldermen’s Hall – the most lavishly decorated council chambers you are ever likely to see. Not showing any sign of age either; which is quite a change for most of the medieval places you visit.
Couldn’t help notice how stores group together on the main shopping streets. There are C&A, H&M, L&L all together (Target style). Then the 4 lettered ones: Maxx, Didi, Inno, Zara (boutique style). I notice that Bjorn Borg shops are popular too.
Peak hour here is interesting: high school hours are 8.30am to 5.15pm, so you have hundreds of teens on bikes streaming out of the schoolyards and mixing it with the heavy car traffic from the factories and industrial areas: bedlam! Yet they all seem to avoid each other. The bikes have an advantage too: the streets are so narrow they are nearly all one way, so cars have to take circuitous routes to get home: the kids on bikes just dash through the most direct route, regardless of direction.
So that brings my European mainland leg to an end. London tomorrow, where I believe the weather is expected to deteriorate for the 4 day long weekend there in honour of the Queen’s 60th Jubilee. Well, I’ll wait and see.
A last glimpse of Brugge here
1 comment:
Brisbane is going to be very boring when you return compared to all of this. Next trip??
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