Bruges

I've heard Bruges called the Venice of the north because of its many canals but I have been to  Venice and I say it does not compare...not that I'm complaining.

Still, Bruges is a beautiful city with not just one big square, but three. Burg has the most ornate architecture, the next has the Belfort  tower one can climb for the view, and Markt has statues and colorful step-gabled buildings  as well as horse and buggies waiting for tourist fares. In the Markt square were a whimsical fountain and two very different sculptures. One was the classic hero who faced the other, a series of mirrors in an odd geometric form. I wondered why anyone would think such a monster belonged in a 13th century square until I got closer. Then I knew. Another nearby sculpture on the grounds of a cathedral didn't make sense either but was interesting nonetheless.

Belfort Tower

Berg

Bruges was once a huge shipping and trade center which explains the richness of its architecture and its varied decoration. On a walking tour we passed through a small square, its focus was mostly on the tanning trade. One building had sculpted decorations that depicted the process of tanning; another the face of a grimacing man our guide joked was really reacting from the smell of the urine used in the tanning process. I read somewhere that alum served that purpose but his story was much more fun.

The cathedrals were much more ornate inside than those I peeked into in Ghent. They spared no expense in Bruges. Most unusual was the Jurezelemkerk started by a man who let his young son lay the first stone; that son being the one to finish it many, many years later. Now  his heart is buried along with his wife in a black marble tomb located in front of the strangest altarpiece I've ever seen. It is a rather plain arrangement of skulls, bones and tools, a different depiction of what it took to crucify Christ.

I did my usual wandering, elbowing through mobs of tourists, dodging frustrated cyclists, peering into imaginative shop windows, just exploring because that seems to be what I do best. .

One morning I set out for Damme hoping to take the boat down the canal. The drawbridge was up while boat after boat passed under as people waited patiently for almost an hour to pass. Finally the police came, had a little talk with the bridge tender and we were given our turn to pass. Needless to say, I missed my boat but enjoyed the 5km hike to Damme in the company of a couple from Australia. Damme was small, pleasant but not exciting, so I stopped by the skeleton of an ancient cathedral before retiring to a cafe for cafe and some lively conversation with a local man and the French speaking woman who offered to share her table.