We left Saturday morning for a 2 hour trip on the high speed train to Brussels. Yes, just a 2 hour train ride and we're in another country---and we actually went thru France to get there. We went by way of the Channel Tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel
If you look quick you'll see the entrance, after that there's not much to see (tunnels are dark).
The train ride was comfortable sitting, but it's not very easy to walk while its moving. After we arrived in Brussels we found our way to the tram station to get to our hotel. We knew which tram to take and wanted to make sure we were going in the right direction. After some discussion while looking at the map I agreed with Leanne (who know how far we would have gotten if we went the way i wanted to go) and we were on our way. I had a map to get from the tram to the hotel, but for some reason the street names were different than what was on the map. After some map checking with Leanne's blackberry phone we got to our hotel. After checking in we were on our way to catch a hop on hop off bus tour of Brussels. But before we go there we ran into a demonstration at a city square. We're not sure what it was for (it was all foreign to us) but there was a lot of talking (again foreign) on loud speakers.
There were two bus tours, one for the inner part of the city and the other was for the outskirts.
This is a picture of the parliament building, the Kings office is on the left--good to be the king.
This structure is on the outskirts of town, its called Atomium and was built for the 1958 Worlds Fair. Its an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Not sure how the meeting went to talk people into building it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomium
Lots of tram lines, we have noticed its easy to get anywhere on this side of the pond. You can also easy to get lost if you take the wrong line.
Did i mention they have chocolate in Belgium?
A side street on our way to dinner.
And here are the Mussels from Brussels, Leanne picked well for her dinner. I had pork that was ok, as you can see i did not take a picture of mine.
and indoor shopping area, a mall before there were malls
and of course there is another chocolate shop.
Around the corner from the last chocolate store was this town square
Most of the buildings had a lot of gold (i think it was paint) on them
This on did not get the memo about trimming in gold.
and more gargoyles
Did i mention that they make chocolate in different shapes, these are dark chocolate.
Our next stop was to see the most famous sculpture in Brussels, the Manneken Pis. Is is a fountain stature of a little boy re-leaving himself. The history is very interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis
They put an different costume on it several times a week, this is the one he was wearing when we saw him.
This is what he looks like with out a costume
and in chocolate.
A great view as we head back to the hotel after out first day.
Our first stop was the Vladslo German cemetery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladslo_German_war_cemetery
They had moved graves from other smaller cemetery to this one. Each stone has the remains of 25 soldiers and there are 25,644 men buried here.
German grave stones had to be a dark stone. The Allied head stones (which you will see later) are in white.
Our next stop was an area where some of the trench warfare had taken place.
This picture shows a Belgium position, the German position was the upper right had corner of the picture. The farm ground in the background had been flooded to slow the Germans. This what it was like for about 3 years.
During the war you had to keep you head down to keep from being shot. The trenches would have been a wet cold muddy mess.
The St. Julien Memorial is a Canadian war memorial and small commemorative park located in the village of Saint-Julien
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Julien_Memorial
In this area the first poison gas attacks were made against Canadian troops.
This is the front entrance.
This is the church next to it, if you look the brick work is different. After the war it was rebuilt and that is why it is diffrent.
This is what the area looked like after the war, church on the left and the Cloth hall on the right.
.
another view of the destruction.
This is a bomb crater from munitions from the war. The Germans had trenches in the area and stored munitions in rooms near the trenches. As they were leaving they set them to explode on the advancing Belgium. The problem is they didn't explode as planned. The Belgium new about it and decided to leave it and not try to remove it. It finally went off went off in the 1950s from the deteriorating of metals. The crater is about 50 yards across.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyne_Cot
The memorial in the background contains the names of 33,783 soldiers of the UK forces, plus a further 1,176 New Zealanders, there bodies were never found. The memorial with the cross was built on a German bunker.
There are 11,954 graves of which 8,367 are unnamed
The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing another memorial that bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose bodies were not found.
Every evening since 1928 (except for a period during the Second World War when Ypres was occupied by Germany), at precisely eight o'clock, traffic around the Memorial has been stopped while the Last Post is sounded beneath the gate by the local fire brigade.
It made for a long day by the time we got back to our hotel, but it was worth it.
Day 3 on to Bruges.
We went from the death and destruction of WW 1 to the beauty of Bruges. Amazingly the war did not go this way and the buildings were not destroyed. The city itself is surrounded by canals and at one time was very big into shipping. That all stopped when they made a french King mad and he moved it to another city. Always remember "don't make the King mad". after that it was just a sleepy town until the tourist started coming.
The first few pictures are of the town square, like most city's they also have one.
The Belfry, started in 1240 over the years has caught fire and has been rebuilt a few times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfry_of_Bruges
We were able to go on a free walking tour after we checked into the hotel. It was a two hour tour and when it was done you gave an amount you thought it was worth---and they gave you a coupon for a free beer.
It seamed like there were canals everywhere, for a while i thought we were in Venice.
Another smaller square that also has the local brewery .
St. Johns Hospital, started in the 11th century its one of Europe's oldest surviving hospital buildings.
This bridge is one of the newest bridges in town and is only 100 years old.
Another city square, this one has the town hall on the left. The black building is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. The church houses a venerated relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land
After the tour and our free beer Leanne and I decided to eat at a tapas restaurant that we read about. We asked the tour guide where it was and figured with his explanation, the map we had we would have no problem finding it. Wrong, we walked around the block at least four times and asked three more people where it was. Some didn't know, some didn't care. We finally asked a women in---where else, a chocolate store and she gave us directions. Right at the hat store and then walk very slowly or you will miss the street because "its the smallest street in Bruges". So we made our left at the hat store and walked very slowly down the next street and found this street.
Thru the opening was a small street (alley) and at the end of it was the restaurant. There was actually a bar down that street also. I guess if you got real drunk you could hang on to the walls to get out.
The restaurant was very good the only problem was the guy next to us talking and telling his whole life story to his friends and every one else. The other thing was the restroom. The restaurant was called Cookies and in the rest room there were two doors one said Cookie and the other was Kim. I wasn't sure if Kim was the women or Cookie was. So there is the question----I couldn't wait for an answer because i had to go.
After the late lunch we were able to watch a free harp concert, amazing to watch.
More beautiful views of canals
a view near our hotel
And a trip to Bruges would not be complete with out a canal boat ride. It was a 30 min ride and out tour guide was not that exciting to listen to---Boring.
Not sure where this doorway used to go to before it was boarded up.
Me paying attention to the boring tour boat captain---or maybe trying to stay awake.
A lot of houses have statues on them, this one is the Virgin Mary,
another statue.
And this one is of a guy laying down---maybe someone from a previous boat ride that fell asleep.
Another place we visited was a church that had a Michelangelo statue. This is the Madonna and child, the Germans took it during WW 2 and it was return after the war. The movie Monuments Men explains why the Germans were stealing great works of art.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/?no-ist
Another amazing thing in the old churches is the pulpits, great for preaching fire and brimstone.
and the confessionals are very elaborate.
For our late dinner i pick Meatloaf with mashed potatoes with a Rhubarb sauce. It sounded a little out of the ordinary, so i figured what the heck. It was surprisingly good, so good that i will make it at home.
Day 4 was spent in Ghent a small town 30 minutes by train from Bruges
Did i mention that you can get fresh bread from a vending machine.
Leanne enjoying the train ride.
Ghent town square, this town also had canals around it.
A view at the three builds we would be looking at today.
The first was a church
With a huge pulpit, the carving on them is very detailed.
and another beautiful alter.
Next was a walk up the belfry tower for a view of the city.
http://www.belfortgent.be/engels/historieken.html
The carillon is run off a large drum, basically what you would find in a music box, only bigger.
Next stop was another church that was only a few blocks from the last one.
Another elaborate pulpit
The Lamb of God painting
http://www.artbible.info/art/lamb-of-god.html
The locking mechanism for a box, there was key on the other side.
After we left the church we happened upon this---yes this is a very inexpensive urinal.
We caught the train back to Bruges for a late dinner.
Day 5 was spent in Bruges for most of the day and then it would be off to Antwerp.
For our last day in Bruges we decided to go to the beer museum and also some beer tasting
After a few beers it was time for lunch, we stopped at this place because of the loaf of bread in the window. It was crazy big.
Then another church, this was a small one near our hotel.
Although it was small it still had a huge pulpit, very ornate wood carving
and for a small church the had lots of confessionals, there were two more on the other side.
On to Antwerp.
Antwerp train station
Some old guy in blue
A town square near our hotel
The Cathedral of Our Lady
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Our_Lady_(Antwerp)
Day 6 in Antwerp
Today we plan on visiting the church and the house of Peter Paul Rubin
For this church they had a hand speakers for a walking tour. The problem is that there was no map for it so it was very hard to follow it. Leanne and i decided it was a where's Waldo tour and we took turns finding what was next on the tour. We tried to figure the order but there was none. Some times we would be in the front of the church and some times the back.
Of course we have another grand pulpit, the guy who made these must have had a great salesman. Every church we went to had one.
Check out this confessional, there was a lot of them---must have been some good sinners in this church.
This was a painting by Rubens, the side panels would close and on the back were other drawing.
This is the choir chamber, the wood work was amazing. All done by hand with out power tools
Another view of it.
Next we visited the house of Peter Paul Rubens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubenshuis
The house for the most part was rebuilt from what was there.
Well that was it for the trip, the next day we headed back to London, tired from a lot of sightseeing.
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