An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Rushed to get to breakfast before 10am, then Milton, feeling much better, went to climb the Brugge bell tower (all 366 steps) and amble around while Wendy enjoyed her novel, while fighting off Milton’s cold.
The tower afforded fabulous views, though ascending reminded me of that game kids (or college students at Spring Fling) play by bending over and rotating around an upright baseball bat until sufficiently dizzy then trying to run in a straight line, as these stairs kept getting steeper and narrower as they wound up and around. Neat to see the inner-workings of the bells (where concerts are actually played a few times each week) and the panoramic views of the red-tiled rooves of Brugge.
Today was market day in the big square, but it was a relatively small one with mostly fruit and other produce. Walked over and saw more of the shopping streets, buying two more tapes for the upcoming car time (best of Dire Straits, and a best of Flemish Shlanger music, which sounded basically like pop and contained many covers (I was told), but all in Flemish). Came back to the room, read the IHT, then set off for AutoEurop. Sat patiently for about 1/2 hour while the woman processed the paperwork, and were rewarded with a silver new Mercedes 220 diesel, (with A/C - yea!), which is their mid-size! (However, the joke’s on us, as it has only a CD player)
We motored off to Ghent, which turned out to basically be Brugge, jr. Set on a small river, the city is notable for several 1500-era buildings along the river, an old but solid grey-stone fortress, mostly in ruins, also along the river, and two imposing churches. We wandered around looking for the Fodor’s recommended lunch spot only to discover that it was closed for renovation and that all restaurants stopped serving at 3:00 anyway. We did find a sandwich shop and had a chicken sandwich with a mustard-seeded gouda, which was the best part. Wendy was fading from her cold, so we found St. Bavo’s Cathedral and the much-hyped Van Eyck work, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. The painting is a polyptych (20 panels!) from 1432 with a fascinating history of being stolen, recovered, lost, found, etc. It is truly remarkable, with painstaking detail (the artist allegedly used some brushes containing one bristle) with some panels containing hundreds of images and some with one large, but oh-so-richly-rendered image, all biblical, of course. The church itself was grand, with ceilings the size of tall redwoods.
We zipped out of town and onto the E40 expressway, a radical departure from the B & R fietspads. We got into Brugge and endured 30 minutes of hellish frustration (I think driving here was actually Dante’s sixth level) of one-way streets, canals, and streets that look good for a while, then narrow so much (hadn’t been a problem on a bike) that you then have to back up for several blocks. Finally arrived and found that the street the hotel is on WAS CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION! We got the nice lady from the hotel (who had not been informed of the closure) and she parked for us as we walked back; boy, was she mad about it. We relaxed for a short while, then satisfied a craving by dining at the local Chinese place. (Don’t think they have delivery here yet) Soup, chicken satay, chicken w/white asparagus, prawns w/Chinese mushrooms. Not great, but really hit the spot, and all in 40 minutes. Came home, ate more chocolate, and read.