Oooh! Bruges

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of our Bruges adventures.

It was the morning of Thursday the 18th of April and the sun streaming in through our windows was making us all a giddy. We'd slept like the proverbial logs, so, well-rested and solar powered, we jumped out of our kingsize bed and, driven by the first stirrings of hunger pangs, got ready in record time.

Then we made our way from our room in the annex to the breakfast area in the B&B proper. 

As always, Veronique managed to spoil us rotten with her breakfast menu of fruit and yoghurt, followed by a choice of home-made bread, rolls and croissants, a selection of cheeses, charcuterie and smoked salmon and, of course, tiny pots of Veronique's mouth-watering jams.

Fuelled by a caffeine hit, we were then ready for anything the day would have in store for us!

The weather forecast for the day was for sunny and largely dry weather and highs of 12°C, which sounded nothing short of exotic after the chilly single digit temperatures of the last couple of days.

And so it was that Truus, our Dutch-speaking Satnav, guided us along secondary roads to Bruges and neatly deposited us in the huge underground car park at the 't Zand square. 

But wait: what about those dark and menacing clouds which had suddenly appeared on the horizon? Surely they were meant to take their liquid load elsewhere? By the time we'd parked our car and emerged in the daylight of the square, the bright blue sky we'd woken up to had been replaced by a blanket of dullest grey. What's more, a sea of open umbrellas greeted us once we'd stepped outside. 

Inwardly cursing, we ducked inside the Tourist Office located in the Concert Hall building on the square as we wanted to pick up the new Oooh! Bruges walking guide (above, top left). Then, after being reassured by the weather app on Jos's phone,  we opened our umbrellas, took deep breaths and braved the last of the rain.

We walked into the direction of the Market Square via the city's main shopping thoroughfare - still reasonable negotiable at 10.30 am - passing Saint Saviour's Cathedral (above, bottom left) and making a tiny detour around the square named after mathematician and physicist Simon Stevin (1548-1620). He invented the decimal system for fractions and created the mathematical basis for the construction of fortifications, and that's him up there on the plinth!

As we continued up the street and I pointed my camera upwards to photograph the exquisite façades rising above the shops, the patches of blue which had reappeared in the sky were multiplying until we were walking under a dome of bright blue dotted with strands of candy floss clouds.

Just then, as if by magic, the top of the belfry tower appeared behind the row of gables. Dating back to the 13th Century and standing 83 meters tall, the belfry is one of Bruges' most iconic and definitely most visible buildings.

Rounding a final corner, we arrived at the city's epicentre, the stunning Market Square. Dominated by the belfry and lined with magnificent neo-Gothic buildings and rows of picture perfect step-gabled houses, it was nevertheless the heaving crowd of tourists which instantly caught our attention. 

At the square's centre is the statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, who played leading roles in the Flemish resistance against the French in the 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs. They seemed to be watching the throng of people milling around on the square and talking in a cacophony of languages with a healthy dose of disdain.

Sharing Jan and Pieter's sentiments, we couldn't get away fast enough. A glance at the belfry's clock told us we still had plenty of time for a wander before lunch. 

The belfry clock, by the way, is not the only means of telling the time on the Market Square. On top of House Bouchoute (above, top left) dating from 1482, is a sphere covered in gold leaf. When the Brussels-Ghent-Bruges railway line was opened in the 1830s, people noticed that not all Belgian clocks were synchronised. This, of course, was not conducive to a punctual timetable. The problem was solved by installing a noon hand and a noon line in various Belgian cities. In Bruges, this was done in 1837. Nowadays, the noon line is indicated with a line of copper nails on the square. When the shadow of the sphere falls directly on the 12 o’clock line, it is noon, or 12 o’clock local solar time.

Walking away from the square, we passed a chemist, its façade adorned with a veritable floral extravaganza (above, top right) as well as a Think Twice shop completely ignored by moi, until we reached the Royal City Theatre (1869) with its neo-Renaissance façade (1869), one of the best-preserved city theatres in Europe (above, bottom right).

In front of the theatre is a sculpture by Jef Claerhout (1937-2022) dating from 1980 and picturing the character ‘Papageno’ from Mozart’s opera ‘Die Zauberflöte’ (The Magic Flute). The sculptor 

represented the bird catcher Papageno dressed in a bird-like costume with wings and a bird’s head and long beak over his head. Papageno is holding pan pipes in his right hand, while a cage containing several, rather weird-looking, captured birds dangles from his belt.

You can find part of the opera's score etched on the pavement across the street. Last time we were here, in February 2023, we were treated to a rendition by my lovely friend Kezzie and her husband CBC! 

Once past the theatre, we took a right turn and strolled into the direction of the Jan van Eyck square, which ends quite abruptly at one of Bruges' picturesque canals. In fact, the Spiegelrei, as this stretch of canal is called, used to run where the square is now and was connected to the Dijver canal, which lies behind the Burg square. The square was named after the famous Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck (ca. 1390-1441), whose statue is looking out over the square towards the Poortersloge (Burghers' Lodge).

Turning our backs on the canal for now, we walked around the Burghers' Lodge, which was built between 1395 and 1417 and was commissioned by the commercial elite of the time, the patricians and merchants. In those days, this area was at the very centre of international trade. This was where ships were loaded and unloaded and traders could see their ships approaching from the tower.

Lunch time was approaching by now, but instead of retracing our steps, we took some back streets and  walked into the general direction of the Market Square. Well, that was the plan, but knowing us it was written in the stars that we would get lost at least once during our wanderings.

After much head scratching and consulting of maps, we eventually found ourselves at the Groenerei (Green Quay canal), whose cobbled quayside we followed until a view towards the belfry opened up - can you spot it in the photo on the top left ? - and we were back in tourist-land.

As usual, we were having lunch in one of the step-gabled restaurants lining the Market Square. In spite of only coming here once a year, our favourite waiter recognized us and not only welcomed us with open arms but treated us as royalty. 

While Jos was going for witloof in de oven, a classic Belgian dish featuring chicory rolled in ham and baked in the oven with mashed potatoes and a cheesy Béchamel sauce, I opted for pasta.

That morning, I'd been poring over the map and planning an itinerary for our afternoon walk away from the so-called Golden Triangle.

For this, we had to make our way to the Dijver canal and the Rozenhoedkaai (Rosary Quay), which must be the city’s most popular spot for photography and an Instagrammable hotspot. Once upon a time, rosaries were sold here but today it offers one of the city’s loveliest views. 

Consequently, it is always thronged with sightseers, with a constant stream of canal tour boats churning up the water, and the inevitable queues at the various landing stages.

Our walk took us along back streets until we reached the quiet Queen Astrid Park, its eyecatcher an ornate cast iron band stand dating from 1859, one of the oldest in the country, which was restored and repainted in its original colours in 2015.

Quite unexpectedly, we stumbled upon one of the many Godshuizen (Almshouses) in Bruges. These charitable dwellings were built from the 14th century onwards, set up by the guilds to lodge their elderly members, or by widows or well-to-do burghers who wanted to ensure their place in heaven.

Although they are usually oases of peace and quiet, the bench Jos was sitting on turned out to be a bit of a hazard with that lethal looking protruding bolt!

At the end of the street, the stretch of water called the Coupure awaited. We walked alongside moored barges until we reached the Groenerei (Green Quay canal) once more. Here, we crossed the street and walked along the Verversdijk (Dyers' Quay) where in medieval times, the famous Flemish cloth was dyed. 

In one of the side streets we caught a glimpse of the tower of the Jerusalem church (above, top left) which is part of the atmospheric Adornes Estate we visited back in 2023. See my post here, but do scroll down towards the end. 

We returned to the city centre via the peaceful Gouden-Handrei (Golden Hand canal), which was excavated in the 12th Century and was part of Bruges’ first city walls. 

This brought us back to the Burghers' Lodge and  Jan van Eyck square, where we sheltered from a sudden downpour.

Then, somewhat tired and in need of sustenance, we took deep breaths and dived into the crowds again until we reached a favourite tearoom. 

Surely we deserved those waffles after traipsing around Bruges all day?

It was too early to return to our car, but as Jos was tired on his feet, I proposed a visit to Saint Saviour's Cathedral, where he could have a sit-down while I wandered all around the church and took far too many photographs.

The cathedral is Bruges’ oldest parish church (12th–15th century) and has amongst its treasures a rood loft with an organ, medieval tombs, Brussels tapestries and a rich collection of Flemish paintings dating from the 14th to the 18th Century. 

The most fragile and precious of these works, which included paintings by Dieric Bouts, Hugo van der Goes and other Flemish primitives, are on display in the Treasury, the only part of the church where photography is not allowed.

There is no entrance fee to the church but collection boxes for its maintenance can be found at regular intervals.

Still reeling from all that splendour we finally rejoined our car and returned to Het Soetewater.

Before our evening meal which consisted of the remainder of that plentiful tapas board, there was time for some outfit photos. The Diolen dress I'm wearing was plucked from my Winter wardrobe and well-known to most of you as it's a regular on the blog. My mock croc boots have been awarded first prize for comfort after having been on my feet all day. Still, I wouldn't have minded exchanging them for sandals by now!

Please do join me again for the final installment in a couple of days!

See you soon!

It's a long way to the castle

After having tricked us with a handful of warm and sunny days, April decided to live up to her  reputation for capriciousness by making a U-turn to Winter temperatures in the month's third week. 

As this was the time of our little getaway, we could have wept at the weather forecast, which spoke of heavy rain, hailstorms, frosty nights and highs of well below 10°C. So much for packing a selection of Spring frocks and jackets, I actually had to dig out one of my warmest Winter coats again!

Monday and Tuesday were stormy, four-seasons-in-one-day office days, so waking up to a bright blue sky and sunshine on Wednesday, the first day of our break, was a nice surprise. We even started hoping against hope that they'd got it wrong and it was going to be a sunny albeit bitterly cold, day.

As our holiday destination was only one hour away, we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping in, having a leisurely breakfast, and giving Bess an extra cuddle before stowing our bags into our car and driving off at around 11.30 am. 

By then, however, dark clouds had been gathering on the horizon and, sure enough, we'd hardly left our village behind before the first drops of rain appeared on our windscreen. 

Torrential rain accompanied us on our one-hour journey on the motorway, our windscreen wipers going at full speed, until finally a gap appeared in the layer of grey as we were nearing our destination. 

For the 8th time, we would be staying at Het Soetewater, a delightful B&B in Beernem, a rural village just a stone's throw from the hustle and bustle of Bruges. Here, as always, we were welcomed with restorative cups of coffee and slices of yummy cake!

Then it was off to our luxury room complete with kingsize bed and whirlpool bath in the annex, making ourselves at home and saying hello to our neighbours at the front (above, bottom left) and back (above, top right). 

After eating the packed lunch we'd brought from home, we were ready for our first adventure: a visit to the magnificent Loppem Castle, which involved a drive of a mere 15 minutes.

45 minutes later, we trundled up the cobbled drive and parked our car in the castle's car park. And no, we didn't manage to get lost! In fact, our Satnav expertly guided us along secondary roads and through the village of Loppem until we found ourselves at a dead end as extensive roadworks where blocking the final 2 kilometer stretch of road we needed to take.

Diversions signs were non-existent and our Satnav made us drive around in circles until we were dizzy. In desperation, we decided to return part of the way to Beernem and then take the motorway, as I remembered from our last visit that the E40 virtually skirts the domain. To cut a long story short, we finally made it, although we'd lost 30 minutes of precious time along the way.

While we were driving around, the sun had come out in full force and, although she once or twice tried to hide behind some angry-looking clouds, she was still with us when we walked through the gatehouse (above, bottom right). Inside, two medallion sculptures were looking down on us, mere mortals, as we made our way outside into the quadrangle of stables and other outbuildings. 

Just 10 kilometers from Bruges, stately Loppem Castle is surrounded by a romantic English style garden and park, with centuries-old trees, ponds, grottos and even a notoriously tricky maze. 

In 1856, the English architect Edward Welby Pugin (1834-1875) was commissioned by the future inhabitants, Baron Charles van Caloen and his wife, Countess Savina de Gourcy Serainchamps, to draw up plans for the castle. Later on, supervision of the building work was entrusted to the Belgian architect Jean-Baptiste Bethune (1821-1894), who gave a slightly more Flemish character to the building. 

Construction of the castle was completed by 1863 and the result is an excellent example of the Flemish neo-Gothic style. 

The interiors at Loppem castle are decorated and furnished in perfect harmony with the neo-Gothic architecture. The furniture designed by Pugin as well as Bethune’s stained-glass windows, chandeliers, staircases and fireplaces were all executed with immense skill by local craftsmen.

The impressive entrance hall or vestibule (above), with its grand staircase and its vaulted ceiling, is where van Caloen and his guests played billiards.

Reaching up 17 metres from the floor, in polychromed wood with six bosses decorated with family coats of arms, the ceiling is a faithful copy of the 14th century vault of the gothic hall in Bruges' city hall.

The stunning encaustic floor tiles were produced by Minton Hollis from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

The grand staircase's banister is composed of a hundred exquisitely crafted panels featuring native plants, animals and hunting scenes.

The blue drawing room (below, bottom left) is decorated with murals by the German artist August Martin, who created these scenes from medieval Flanders in 1869-70.

Leading off from the gallery on the first floor are the formal bedrooms, which include the set of rooms  used by King Albert I and his family when they resided at the castle at the end of the First World War, between 24 October and 21 November 1918. 

For one month, Loppem Castle was the headquarters of a newly liberated Belgium. It was here that the famous "Loppem Government" was formed, the first government to include socialists, and which, among other things, introduced universal male suffrage, the right to trade unions and strikes, and the promise of a Dutch-language university in the city of Ghent.

The busts on the bottom left and right are those of King Albert I and his wife, Queen Elisabeth.

Also on the first floor is the family chapel. The two-storey, single-nave chapel has pink walls and a blue-painted wooden vault. From a stand on the upper floor, staff could attend the service. Jean-Baptiste Bethune's stained-glass windows depict the family's patron saints.

The castle is home to an impressive art collection, largely assembled by Baron Jean van Caloen (1884– 1972), Charles’ grandson. 

Jean was a passionate collector with wide-ranging interests, including medieval sculpture, Flemish painting, stoneware from Raeren (a German town, now in present-day Belgium) and Westerwald, Mechelen alabasters, Portuguese ivories, illuminated manuscripts, prints and drawings. 

These collections are mostly displayed in museum style in a set of  remodelled rooms on the first floor.

Besides the numerous paintings, there is an exceptional collection of old sculptures as well as art from Asia and Africa. 

The kneeling angel (above, top right) is Italian and dates from 1425-1450. I wonder why she was promptly rechristened waffle angel by us ...

Our heads were reeling after taking in room after room of arts, crafts and artifacts. In fact, I was quite goggle-eyed, which was exacerbated by catching sight of my reflection in one of the mirrors in the passageway downstairs!

Rain-pregnant clouds were once again in evidence by the time we made it outside, which meant that our plans of a walk around the castle park were off the cards. Now, if we hadn't been waylaid by those pesky roadworks ...

As it was, we barely had the time for a quick look around the garden until the heavens opened.

I still managed to take a photo of the castle in all its glory and show you the prominent, corbelled sandstone chapel crowned with an octagonal spire. 

Having learned our lesson, our return journey was a doddle, although it had started raining in earnest by now.

Back in our room, we rested our feet. Then, when our stomachs started rumbling, we made our way to the main part of the B&B to sample Veronique's trademark tapas board, which we'd ordered for our first evening.

Day one ended with a soak in our whirlpool bath and an evening of relaxing and reading.

If the weathermen were to be believed, we would be in for a dry and sunny day with highs of - gasp! - 12°C on Thursday. Would they have got it right for once? Find out by joining me again for installment no. 2 in a couple of days!

A glimpse of Spring

In the past week, we've been to Bruges and back. The weather gods have been reasonably well behaved, all things considered - although it seems they still didn't get the Spring menu - and my camera has been working overtime. 

As I'm due back at the office tomorrow, it'll be a while until I've uploaded all my photos and written the first installment of our travel adventures. So, here's one I prepared earlier, so to speak, catching up with what has been happening in my life in the week or so preceding our little getaway!

The weather forecast for Saturday the 6th of April spoke of temperatures reaching the low twenties, which had us shaking our heads in disbelief. But lo and behold, they got it right for once, so out came my first short-sleeved frock of the season.

I picked up this blue retro-style Who's That Girl dress with its green flower print and front zip in a charity shop back in November. Bare legs would have been more appropriate on a day like this, but as we'd planned a walk in the wilderness, I didn't want to tempt fate and have the local population of insects feast on them. So, I wore a pair of green opaques, matching both the flowers in my dress and the camisole I was wearing underneath. 

Not matching anything in particular but chosen as they caught my eye that day were a Bohemian beaded brooch, a chunky multi-coloured necklace and an orange plastic ring, all picked up at either flea markets or charity shops. 

My sage green crepe soled Mephisto ankle boots were charity shopped too and are just the perfect footwear for muddy Spring walks.

And muddy it was! Following a brainstorming session during lunch that day, we decided to risk it and drive down to Jos's old neck of the woods: the ex-clay pit based nature reserve in Terhagen.

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while might remember that the mud here isn't exactly of the ordinary, run of the mill kind, but rather of the stick-to-your boots and try-to-suck-you-in variety. 

What's more, months of rain had made some of the areas quite unsurpassable. 

One of the makeshift little bridges, for instance, had been swallowed by the swollen brook it ineffectually tried to cross (above, bottom right). To give you an idea, this is what it looked like in May of last year.

Instead of a brilliant blue, though, the sky was almost colourless, veiled with a haze which unfortunately obscured the sun for the better part of the day. 

In fact, although the temperature had dropped to 19°C and it was a bit windy, Sunday was a much better day, the sky a clear blue canvas for the sun to play with.

No walking for us that day, however, at least not in the great outdoors. Instead, we would be trawling the aisles of this month's edition of the indoor flea market!

Obviously, I couldn't let the side down and needed to dress to impress my flea market fans.

My green and white plaid skirt, its fabric a polyester jersey knit, was an old Think Twice find, while the floral extravaganza of a blouse was picked up in a charity shop in March 2019.

My deer brooch - if you can spot it among the flowers - as well as the jauntily knotted scarf came from a long-gone vintage shop, while the mottled green beaded necklace was once again supplied by the charity shops. 

At my waist, I was wearing one of the stretchy belts I picked up at a bargain shop two days earlier. 

My feet were happy all day in the pale pink suede ankle boots, which I snaffled in the closing-down sale of the Belgian branch of New Look in 2019.

But what about the hat, I can hear you thinking. Well, it was that day's final flea market find!

Most of the hats I come across are far too large for my tiny head, so it was nothing short of a miracle that this one was a perfect fit. Here's a closer look at fabric flowers which trail all around its navy band.

On its left is the day's first find: a yellow pleated fabric belt, which cost me all of € 2.

Obviously, I also added to my burgeoning brooch collection.

The large jewelled lizard, the yellow resin umbrella and the climbing frog with its jewelled limbs are my favourites, and yes, that is a Christmas tree on the top right. It's so exquisitely made that - admittedly after a moment's hesitation - I decided it needed to come home with me!

There is, by the way, no need to curb my enthusiasm when it comes to buying brooches. I've been given no less than 8 more of those shallow wooden drawers by Jos's friend, and he's told us that he's got plenty more if need be as he is rearranging his collection of coins whose homes they used to be.

My final find of the day was this vintage 1940s/1950s hair clip display card, complete with its pairs of blue, pink and faux-tortoiseshell celluloid hair clips.

The weather in April's second week was yet another mixed bag, sunny and warm(ish) one day and dull, grey and stormy with a significant drop in temperature the next.

There's nothing of note to tell you about it, just your usual humdrum office week punctuated by the usual cappuccino catch-up with Inez, and a lunch break appointment at my hairdresser's.

Oh, and we were looking after our opposite neighbours' cats, Bobby and Billie, while they were on a city trip. They would return the favour and look after Bess while we were in Bruges!

Friday rolled along in no time, and what's more, the sun had decided to join us again. The day's highs of a mild 20°C were a bit of a wrench though, as the forecast for the week ahead - and thus for our Bruges break - was nothing short of horrific ...  

For a day of pottering and running a couple of errands, I wore a red floral Diolen skirt from Think Twice, combined with a navy blue Western style blouse by Who's That Girl, which was part of a haul from an outlet shop. To the latter, I pinned the bee brooch I found at the flea market on Sunday.

The stretchy belt with its multi-coloured round plastic buckle was an old high street find and - if I remember correctly - I picked up the necklace in a charity shop.

 

In spite, or perhaps because of our neglect, the garden isn't doing too bad, really. At this time of year, there's a sea of bluebells, and it is simply inundated with self-seeded honesty.

Two more varieties of the cheerful daffodil have joined the tête-à-têtes in their cones and pots: on the top left, Golden Carpet, and on the bottom right, the deliciously scented Bridal Crown. 

The sun remained with us on Saturday - we were the 13th of April by now - and at a delicious 24°C it was a glorious Spring day.

For our walk in Duffel park, I donned the vintage short-sleeved millefiori dress I plucked from our local charity shop's rails in February. The pale green diamond patterned cardigan by Zoë Loveborn was charity shopped around the same time. It was the very first outing for both items.

Another recent find was the Italian made tan leather shoulder bag, which has already been admired by many. The black stretchy belt was part of the previous week's bargain shop haul.

Although we'd only been here on Easter Sunday, it was well over a year since we laid eyes on Ter Elst castle, which lies at the park's far end amid a little park of its own.

The origins of the castle date back to the Middle Ages. In the 15th century, it regularly welcomed notable guests, such as Margaret of York and Philip the Fair.  From the 17th century onwards, it was used as a vicarage. In 1799, the castle was seized by the French occupiers and sold. Over seventy years later, the estate was given an industrial purpose: a brickworks operated here until World War I.  After it was heavily damaged 1914, the castle fell further and further into ruin.

The municipality of Duffel bought the castle domain from its private owner in 1972 and, after some well-needed restorations, the castle ruins and park were opened to the public in 1982.

However, it has been many a year since the public was allowed to cross the bridge over the moat and wander among the ruins, as due to stability problems they are once again in need of restoration. 

With the walls ready to crumble and the towers leaning ever more precariously, we were relieved to see that scaffolding had been erected on the inside a couple of years ago and that a start had been made to stabilize the building.

But although there has been talk of ambitious plans, which will include reconnecting the walls and adding a glass roof to the Great Hall, while in the courtyard the contours of the vanished castle will be made visible with variations in the floor pattern, it still looked suspiciously the same as it did on our last visit, in February 2023.

I'm leaving you now with this vision of Springtime, a clump of cheerful red and yellow tulips among the lush green vegetation of the park.

At barely 8°C, we would have needed our Winter coats, scarves, hats and perhaps even a pair of gloves to walk here today.

Hello Spring, where are you?