Belgian Faces

 

After our magical evening in Brugge and a good night in a beautiful little vacation home in the country (I could have stayed there much longer) where we had a lovely friendly chat with the landlord, we made our way to Antwerpen, but not before some cuddle time with their cats.

Antwerpen - I prefer to keep with the native names - is also in the Flemish Region of Belgium and is the second largest city in the country (with Brussels being the largest). We parked on the outskirts and took the train into the city center which was a good idea since all the roads in the center were a huge construction zone.

We first passed by the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady) where I noticed this beautiful monument, dedicated to Jan and Pieter Appelmans, the architects of this Gothic style cathedral. Look at these stone masons!

In the Handschoenmarkt, once home to a glove market, we saw this beautiful sculpture in white marble of Nello and Patrasche outside the cathedral. It is made by Belgian artist Batist Vermeulen and depicts the characters of the 1872 novel A Dog of Flanders by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée. The novel has been a popular children's classic in Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and the Philippines. It is about the boy Nello and his loyal dog Patrasche, partly taking place in Antwerpen and ending in the cathedral (a rather sad ending, actually). Interestinlgy enough it was only translated into Dutch in 1987 and several monuments were created to please tourists. Quite the story, isn't it?

 On our way to Bakkerij Diné we crossed Grote Markt (market square) with its beautiful guildhalls...

... and passed many narrow alleys.

Finally we reached Bakkerij Diné - a very small bakery and coffee shop. The coffee shop was quite packed - there were only a handful of tables - but two guys got up from their bigger table to sit at a smaller one so that we could have the big table. I can't mention the friendliness and consideration of the Belgian people often enough. Everybody we met were just lovely. This was breakfast and dessert (why not have dessert in the morning?):

It was so good! After that the Geek wanted to go to a special frites place (French fries) that Kaefer had visited a few months before. They serve frites with all kinds of interesting mayo sauces, some really unusual flavors. We love to try different food in the countries we visit, no matter how weird they may be. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture - this was quite the spot!

Throughout the city I saw some interesting faces - they and all the other ones in this post are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

How could I not take a picture of this lovely little shop?

A well stocked cheese shop...

... and some delicious dulce.

Finally we took the train back to our car and then it was back on the road, driving home to Germany where we arrived in the early evening. 

Next time we'll go to the North of Germany!

Shrouded in Mist

 

Let's go back to Europe. When I last wrote about our fall trip we were on the beaches of Normandy. A day later we arrived in Dunkerque where we visited the Musée Dunkerque 1940 Opération Dynamo. It was heart wrenching. I didn't take any pictures here except of the numbers of allied troops evacuated and a model of the evacuation.

After that we left France and went to Brugge where we arrived in the late afternoon, when it was already starting to get dark. The entire day had been overcast and gloomy.

Brugge (West Flemish) or Bruges (French) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The two other regions are the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. And there are also two main lingusitic communities found in Belgium, the Dutch-speaking Flemish Community and the French-speaking French Community. There is also a small German-speaking Community. This alone shows the diversity of this relatively small country that is quite important within Europe - it is one of the founding members of the European Union with Brussles as its de facto capital.

We hadn't eaten anything all day (except for snacks in the car) and were now looking for a place to eat. Belgium is famous for its French fries, called frites. Kaefer was the one who had found a supposedly good place on the internet and we were now looking for it - it was across the building in the picture above.

The place was packed, but two young guys invited us to sit at their table. This was our first encounter with the friendliness of the Flemish people, and it wasn't the last. They are a very friendly people! I had my fries with seafood (fish, calamari, shrimp) accompanied by a Belgian beer. Both were delicious. 

This is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday

After this very satisfying dinner we explored the city. The historic city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is criss-crossed with canals and therefore sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the North". It is definitely a very beautiful place. The foggy evening added to its magic.

There were gates and mysterious corners lit by street lights.

While we were walking along the canals and across bridges and courtyards we could hear the bells ringing - it sounded a bit like a Glockenspiel, but also was dissonant at times. I recorded it, if you like, you can listen to it.

This old bridge I found particularly beautiful. 

There were many more bridges because there was water everywhere.

The light was so magical! So were the reflections in the water.

The following four photos show my favorite part of the city. Look at the warm light and those fantastic reflections!

Where there is water, there are swans - we saw quite a bit of them! I was very happy to also find some crooked trees, an enigmatic silhouette against the illuminated sky.

If you wish you can do some great shopping in Brugge. There were many small shops and little restaurants and bars. We didn't see any chain stores, at least not in this part of the city.

Belgians are known for their excellent food, and especially for their sweet stuff. Macaroons...

... marzipan, nougat and chocolate...

... and, of course, beer. There's more to Belgian beer than just Stella Artois.

There were also a lot of places to eat. We could have eaten our way through to our hearts content.

The Provinciaal Hof (Provincial Palace) and Belfort at the Grote Markt (market square), beautifully illuminated.

Narrow alleys right out of some dark mystery novel (or movie) - let your imagination run wild with all the mist hanging over it.

On our way back to where we had parked the car we repeatedly saw more little corners and beautiful courtyards with a lone street light illuminating a dark corner with reflections in an artificial pond.

It was a bit of a challenge to get out through all these narrow streets - we had a moving truck blocking our way, but people were super nice directing us around it (it was just centimeters between our car and the truck) - did I mention that people here were super friendly? Then a draw bridge over one of the canals was drawn up and we had to wait until the boat was through and traffic could move again. Everybody was patient and quite stoic.

I would return in a heartbeat!