Ooops! I forgot to tell you about the rest of Belgium, which is totally worth telling about and showing you pictures because it was pretty awesome. Now, while I don’t necessarily recommend doing what I did, which was see three cities in three days, I don’t regret my decision to do it at all. Camille and I wanted to see Brussels, Bruges and Ghent, so we just decided on the best was to do it, which was see Brussels Friday afternoon and Sunday morning, and then spend all day Saturday in Bruges and Ghent. While it certainly wasn’t enough time to see Ghent in half a day, I’m still pretty happy with my decision because Belgium has so many hidden gems!
I didn’t know this, but Bruges has quite a lot of capitals….and it has a Michelangelo piece. But you guessed it….I couldn’t see it. Me and Michelangelo are just playing a terrible game where I’m not allowed to see his most famous religious pieces of work because I’m too excited that I miss it (La Pieta in Rome) or they are doing some restoration (Madonna and Child). So even though Madonna and Child is technically in one of the amazing churches in Bruges we entered and noticed that they whole church seemed to be under construction, or rather under restoration. So after walking around for a bit we finally asked someone who works there, because I was POSITIVE I read it in my guide book and it said the Madonna and Child was at that church Anyways, the lady told us that it’s under restoration and comes out on Sunday at about 1PM if we want to see it….. we left Sunday at about 1….so that was a no go.
But no matter, the church was gorgeous just the same, and we moved onto cooler things….like seeing blood of Jesus Christ on a cloth from his crucifixtion…yea I saw really cool, awesome old stuff, from JESUS! There’s a really old church in Bruges, that has a piece of the cloth that Joseph of Arimea used to wipe Jesus’ face when they took him off the cross 2,013 years ago…and somehow it ended up in Bruges. I don’t remember the story completely, but if you look up the Holy Blood Chapel in Bruges, Belgium then you’ll be able to find the history behind it. Don’t worry, I did my research before hand to make sure I was seeing something legit, and it was awesome! Basically it’s in this really old, really pretty chapel called the Chapel of the Holy Blood and it’s so pretty because it’s so different from the architecture of other churches in Spain. I love churches in Spain, but a lot of them have the same architecture, and this one was so completly different it was incredible. Technically you weren’t supposed to take pictures, but I just snapped one and it was well worth it, just so you and I can see and remember the beauty that was inside.
After we left Bruges we headed to Ghent, which is another beautiful city. We went a looked around because we got there a little late in the afternoon, but we were still able to enter the tower in town which has a beautiful view of the city. It also had some cool history that involved dragon statues being on the top of the tower and old bells. The museum inside was really nice and we could either climb the stairs to the top or we could take the elevator. Or course we chose to take the cool winding medieval stairs and by the time we got to the top we were thoroughly dizzy and tired and decided to take the elevator down. But the view on top were really nice and it was well worth it!
Guards who stand at the four corners of the tower, the winding stair case, and the giant bell
We then descended the stairs via elevator and went back outside into the really cold weather (at least it was for us!) and walked around the city some more. We took a look at the castle outside and the cathedral, all of which was closed by this point, and succumbed to our hungry stomachs and looked for a restaurant that wouldn’t break the bank. We didn’t find one….but we still found good beer! WE paid too much money for not a lot of food, but that’s what Spain’s standards do to you. I’m used to a full tapa for about 3-6 euro! That’s enough for me, but 10 euro for a small appetizer….no thanks! Anyways, I had really good beer there and Camille had really good women’s beer.
Good Belgian Beer and me with mine!
By the end of the evening we took the train back to Brussels, found really good waffles and sat and watched the town hall light display two more times and just enjoyed ourselves.
Next stop….Munich, Germany and Austria!
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