At the close of April

After virtually skipping Spring, early Summer has arrived here in Belgium with temperatures into the mid-twenties and more. For once, this was well-timed, as most of us have been enjoying an extended weekend by making the bridge after Thursday's public holiday, Ascension Day.

Although this string of long-overdue sunny days has been very welcome indeed, it wasn't exactly conductive to writing a blog post. Particularly when its subject matter are those chilly, barely into double digits days of the last week of April ...  

But needs must so, for the sake of continuity, I'm treating you to a little catch-up.

If all things considered the weather gods were reasonably well behaved during out little getaway, they didn't exactly mend their wicked ways upon our return.  With continuing highs of only 10°C accompanied with yet more of the seemingly neverending rain, my Winter wardrobe still had to work hard for its money.

As work had been rather slow during my absence, my return to the rat race went a lot smoother than I expected. Nevertheless, I was still glad when Thursday, my final day of the week, rolled along.

The day stood out from the rest of the humdrum of office life by meeting up with my friend Inez for a cappuccino-fuelled natter during lunch break. Not to mention the fact that there was a dry spell after work which lasted just long enough to take some outfit photos.

Outfit particulars:

1970s A-line midi skirt and Diolen blouse: Think Twice 

Cable-knit tank top: charity shopped

Brooch and ring: flea market finds

Necklace and boots found on the high street

Proceedings were supervised by Bess, obviously!

Friday saw a mix of sunny spells and showers. The day's highs of 12°C were still nothing much to write home about. However, what with the weathermen having dangled the carrot of a sunny and warm-ish weekend in front of us, this didn't unduly bother us.

Being thoroughly bored with the dregs of my Winter wardrobe, I cast around for those items which hadn't made it out of my wardrobe for the longest of times, if ever.

The latter was the case for the orange and brown striped Dralon knit jumper I charity shopped back in November. It found its ideal partner in the chocolate brown, flower sprinkled Diolen maxi skirt picked up from Think Twice in June 2019.

The necklace, which came from a long-gone vintage shop, hadn't seen the light of day for many years, but turned out to be matching the yellow of my other accessories perfectly. Apart from the bird brooch and the chunky ring, these included the yellow woven fabric belt I'd found at the indoor flea market earlier that month.

We hadn't gone for a rummage at the charity shops for weeks, but the perfect opportunity presented itself as we had a bag of donations to drop off, for which we drove to the shop in Mortsel.

Much as I love my wardrobe full of vintage frocks, lately it have been the rails of skirts I'm heading for first thing.

As you can see, I was in luck, finding three skirts in three different lengths. First up is the off-white floral maxi skirt. It's by a Belgian label called Terra di Siena, the same label as one of my all-time favourite skirts (this one) which coincidentally I found in the same shop.

Next, I stumbled upon the green flouncy skirt patterned with massive flowers in the palest of pinks. It's by Jacqueline de Yong, a sub-division of the Danish Only label, and established in 2012. 

My final find of the day was a knee-length skirt, a burgundy floral delight by King Louie. The fact that it has pockets was a deciding factor!

And while we're on the subject of the latest additions to my wardrobe, I almost forgot to show you the vintage dress I found at Think Twice in the week before our Bruges break. Rather unusual for me, it's in a plain turquoise fabric, but it were the floral collar and trim as well the bodice's chevron pin-tucks and inset with row of tiny decorative buttons which won me over.

I'm sure it won't come as a surprise when I tell you that the forecasted sunny weather for the weekend came to nothing. What's more, Saturday was yet another grey and rainy day and, although the temperature was supposed to climb to the heady highs of 17°C, the conspicuous absence of any sunshine made it feel quite a bit chillier.

I ummed and ahhed in front of my wardrobe, finally deciding upon this Who's That Girl dress. Found in a charity shop at the end of February, this was its very first outing. I picked up the red of its front zipper and buttons by accessorizing it with a red cat brooch and a red and white beaded necklace.

My opaques matched the blue of the dress almost exactly, while my boots echoed the reds of the dress's trim and accessories. Not that I wore them for very long, as I only ventured outside for the outfit photos.

Instead, I decided to bite the bullet and finish my wardrobe exchange, hanging up the final batch of Summer frocks and vacuuming the newly filled bags of Winter dresses for their yearly sojourn in the linen chest. But don't worry, I made sure to still have plenty of colder weather options available!

My journal tells me I also switched around some of my coats and moved the buttons on a vintage rain coat which had never fitted me properly.

Catching up with blogland and watching an episode of Vera were the evening's activities.

Oh, and I did some reading as well. After finishing Muriel Spark's delightful A Far Cry from Kensington at the B&B, I picked Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet as my next read. After a fruitless search, I was lucky enough to find it on the charity shop shelves a couple of weeks prior. 

Sunday was supposed to be the best day of the weekend, but once again turned out to be quite the letdown. Thankfully, the rain held off, but it remained overcast for most of the day, with the oddest of sunny spells from mid-afternoon onwards. 

The 14°C the mercury eventually climbed to was tempered by a blustery, almost gale-force wind, which initially made us rethink our planned walk.

With all our will-we or won't-we dithering, it was too late to go further afield when we finally stepped outside. In fact, we almost made a U-turn when the wind did its best to blow us backwards, tugging at our coats and scarves and almost making off with our hats.

But we persevered and drove to nearby Boom park for a turn. This turned out to be not without its hiccups, as we narrowly escaped a falling branch.

But how green and lush it all was. The perfect backdrop for showing you my charity shopped King Louie coat, found for a mere € 6 in February 2022. I picked up the pinks in its weave with my fluffy scarf and marl-knit beret.

That just leaves the rest of my outfit, which was built around the green zig-zag patterned vintage St. Michael skirt, a gift from my lovely friend Vix.

I can' remember whether the blouse, its fabric the softest of polyester knits, was a charity shop or Think Twice find. However, the green short-sleeved Dralon cardigan was definitely picked up from the latter.

The charity shops provided the necklace, belt and even my bottle green ankle wedges, while the enamelled pansies brooch was a flea market find. 

So, that's it for now. I'll be making a start with the month of May in my next post. In fact, with our UK holiday appearing on the horizon - I can hardly get my head around the fact that we will actually be there in a month's time - I'll have to get my skates on to be caught up with everything by then.

See you soon!

No Bruges deluge!

It was a grey and gloomy day we woke up to on Friday the 19th of April. Gone were Thursday's blue skies and glorious sunshine, and if the weather forecast was to be believed we were in for another Bruges deluge! 

A peek through our windows revealed that, although proof of some overnight rain was in the puddles, at least it was dry for now. What's more, there still wasn't any sign of imminent rain when we walked over to the breakfast room. The outside world didn't look - or feel - any inviting, though, so we lingered somewhat over breakfast while discussing our plans for the day ahead.

Without the previous day's sunshine, the temperature, which was once again barely into double digits, felt positively chilly, so that a bit of layering was of the essence. 

I picked up the long-sleeved Trevira fit and flare dress from Think Twice back in September. The chocolate brown cable-knit tank top I layered on top of it was a charity shop find at the end of 2022 and has proved to be a versatile workhorse in my wardrobe. As does my necklace, which was a retail buy from Accessorize many years ago. As we'd expected to be out and about all day, I added a cardigan for good measure. You'll be catching a glimpse of the latter at the end of this post.

Much to our delight, it was still dry when we were finally ready to drive down to Bruges. However, as the weathermen on the news and the app on our phones seemed to be in agreement that it would rain at some point during the day, we decided to dip into Bruges' ample wet weather options.

Our first port of call was St. John's Hospital, which is one of Europe's oldest preserved hospital buildings, dating from the 12th Century. 

Although we'd often walked on the adjacent Old St. John's site, which also contains the hospital's 19th century successor (now a congress centre), we never had the opportunity to visit the museum itself as for some reason it always seemed to be closed when we were in Bruges.

This time, finally, we were in luck: after an extensive refurbishment, the museum had reopened its doors in December 2023.

Hospitality and care have been intertwined with the hospital's DNA since it was originally founded back in the 12th century.  Ill and needy people were taken care of here. In fact, anyone who needed care or a place to sleep was welcomed, regardless of origin or class. 

The mediaeval wards, with accompanying chapel and impressive attic, are now set up as a contemporary museum, in which visitors are being immersed in the history of care and healing.

There's an impressive collection of medical instruments and hospital artifacts which make you thank your lucky stars you were born in the 20th Century and that medicine has come along as far as it has.

One of the items on display is an old ambulance (above, top right), which is little more than a metal box with long wooden handles, in which the patient had to stand as he was carried by porters to the hospital. 

Not surprisingly, heavenly intervention was much relied on back in the day. There was an interactive display (above, top right) which shed some light on the available celestial remedies.

The museum contains a unique collection of works by Hans Memling,Hans Memling (1430-1494), the 15th century Flemish Primitive painter. This master of hyper-realistic scenes and landscapes lived and worked in Bruges and created his most important works there. In fact, four of the seven masterpieces in the museum were created specifically for St. John's Hospital, and they have been housed here since the late 15th Century. 

In the adjacent hospital church, you come face to face with the St. Ursula Shrine, one of Memling's absolute masterpieces. Completed in 1480, this work is considered the highlight of the artist’s later years. Taking pride of place in the hospital chapel, the shrine is a carved reliquary cased in gold and shaped like a miniature wooden Gothic church. 

Here, you are offered the opportunity to fold a paper model of the shrine and - like people did at the St Ursula Shrine in mediaeval times - make a wish and entrust it to the shrine.  And yes, we did fold one of our own - or rather, Jos did - and took it home with us.

In dialogue with Memling's work are some works by contemporary artists. 

These include the large sculpture (above) called 'Reclining Arcangelo II'. Representing a reclining angel with folded wings on a kind of tomb, its creator is the Flemish artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (°1964), who made it especially for the museum.

The textile installation 'De Fluisterzetel' (Whisper Chair, above, top left) by Barbara Raes and Klaas Rommelaere incorporates stories and clothes from deceased loved ones. 

Another contemporary artwork is the sculpture called 'The Bridge' by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini (°1965). It’s a hyper-realistic sculpture of a woman gently placing her hand on the hand of a strange creature, which is half woman, half pig. 

 

It is definitely worth climbing to the the attic floor, which is being used for temporary exhibitions. The spectacular roof structure made from oak beams is among the oldest and most monumental in Europe.

Here, Unearthed - Sunlight (2021) by Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga (°1974) is taking pride of place. In this work, she combined woven images of a heat-scorched forest with tendrils of living ivy.

This work is part of an exhibition called Rebel Garden, which takes place simultaneously in three Bruges museums. The exhibition broaches highly topical themes such as the effects of global warming, climate activism, man's symbiosis with nature and the relationship between artist and garden.

I took up the invitation to become part of the exhibition by sticking my head into one of the hanging greenhouse structures!

A combined ticket encompassing all three museums was € 25 so even if we were only planning on visiting two of them, it would be saving us money, since the general entrance price for each of them separately was € 15. 

It was midday by now and time for lunch, for which we returned to our favourite place at the Market Square, passing some of Bruges' iconic landmarks along the way.

The rain held off until we were safely ensconced on the restaurant's heated and covered terrace, and had thankfully come and gone by the time we'd finished eating. In fact, we didn't even have to open our umbrellas all day. 

Still, the forecasted rain must have put off most of the tourists as, contrary to Thursday's queues for canal boat tours, the majority of the boats now lay empty and idle at the landing stages due to lack of punters.

We were on our way to our second museum of the day, the Groeninge Museum. 

With works by Flemish primitives such as Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and Gerard David, neo-classicism by Joseph Odevaere and Joseph Ducq, Flemish expressionism, and 20th Century modern art by René Magritte, Roger Raveel and Raoul De Keyser, the museum offers six centuries of Belgian visual arts in one location.

It's impossible to thoroughly take in everything in one go, so we'll definitely need to schedule another visit at a later date.

Here are some the highlights, or rather, some of the paintings which caught my attentions.

I didn't need to read the inscription to identify the triptych on the bottom left as the work of Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516). With his imaginative visual language awash with devils and monsters, he developed a movement that was highly dominant throughout north-western Europe in the 16th Century. The Last Judgement, part of which was completed by Bosch alone, depicts a hellish landscape populated with imaginary creatures.

The Triptych of Job on the top right dates from the first quarter of the 16th Century is by an anonymous follower of  Hieronymus Bosch.

It goes without saying that the works on the top left and bottom right are part of the Rebel Garden exhibition.

As are the fungi-like things between the paintings on the top left.

The other paintings are, clockwise from top right: Portrait of the Archduchess Isabella (c. 1601-1620, anonymous follower of Frans (II) Pourbus, Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1560, anonymous) and Portrait of Margareta van Eyck (1432, Jan Van Eyck).

Clockwise from top left: Portrait of a Woman with her two Children (c. 1804, Franciscus Josephus Kinsoen), the atmospheric 'La Mare aux Fées' at Fontainebleau (c. 1876, Alphonse Asselbergs), Portrait of Marie-Joséphine Lafont-Porcher (c. 1835, Franciscus Josephus Kinsoen) and the haunting Les Fumées (c. 1930, Pierre Paulus).

Stunned by room after room of paintings, we were ready for another round of waffles, for which we made our way to the nearest tearoom along the Dijver canal.

Then, alas, it was time to say goodbye to Bruges once more. But no fear, we'll be back soon!

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!