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!

Grabbing a slice of history

Finally, my blog has reached the end of November, so that for the moment I am not lagging behind as much as I usually do. 

Admittedly, it has been a quiet couple of weeks, the dark and often wet days offering little or no incentive to spend our time outdoors. Additionally, as the lack of daylight continues to keep us from taking photos of my working day outfits, it'll be mainly those I wore from Friday to Sunday which you'll get to see here.

Although there was no shortage of sunshine on Friday 25 November, the mercury kept flitting around 10°C, threatening to dip into the single digits without a moment's notice. 

I'm veering towards my warmer dresses on days like these, preferably with a modicum of wool content. This fusion of leopard and zebra pattern ticked all the boxes that day. Charity shopped about a year ago, surprisingly it was the first animal print garment to join my wardrobe since the leopard print mini skirt of my punk days. Not counting Great Aunt Josephine's heirloom leopard coat, obviously. You can find its story here if I have piqued your interest.

As I last wore the dress with classic red, I opted for berry colours this time, adding a large-buckled belt and long-line cardigan which were both charity shop finds at one time or another. The necklace, whose berry beads are joined by brown and orange ones, was charity shipped as well. I picked it up the other week, but I forgot to photograph it at the time. And what better brooch to add than the vintage leopard which was a flea market find in November 2019?

We were all set to go on our weekly round of the charity shops, but while Jos was once again fulfilling his daily task as newspaper boy, I took the opportunity to photograph my recent loot from Think Twice. As they'd just started another round of their famous sales, I'd spent Thursday's lunch break walking to my favourite branch for a long overdue rummage. 

First up is this vintage cobalt blue C&A frock with its psychedelic floral pattern in light blue, green and orange. It was love at first sight, so I ignored the fact that the zipper was stuck and I wasn't able to try it on.

Back at the office - work was very slow, as our counterparts in Miami were celebrating Thanksgiving - I set to work and finally got it to budge by applying some lip balm as a lubricant and giving it a mighty tug with a pair of pliers. 

This pale blue wool blend shirt-waist dress with its sprinkling of leaves and flowers is from the Finnish Figura label. I love that it still has its original belt, although knowing me chances are that I will wear it with a complimenting or contrasting one from my collection instead.

I grabbed these two skirts as well. The one on the left is a lined knit, although I cannot vouch for its wool content as the identifying label has been cut out. It still bears its origin label, though: it's made in France by/for a company called Bleyle. Interestingly, when I googled the label, it turned out to be a German company which was established in Stuttgart in 1889.

The label of the green, yellow and orange floral skirt on the right says Separates by Delta, and proclaims that it was made in Australia. Not something we see very often here, so I can't help but wondering about its journey to the Northern hemisphere ...

But I mentioned charity shopping, didn't I, so let's have a look at that Friday's finds!

We drove to the edge of town charity shop first, but the only thing that ended up in my basket was the Philippa Gregory book on the left. As our lovely Vix has more than once been singing the praises of this English historical novelist on her blog, I thought it was worth giving one of her books a try.

In order to fully appreciate them, though, I'd better brush up on English history. So wasn't it serendipitous that I found The Story of England by Christopher Hibbert on the shelves of the second shop we visited that day? It's an entertaining and not too taxing guide to England's political, economic and cultural history from the Neolithic age to the the early 1990s, when the book was published. 

The same shop's shelves also yielded the Jennifer Weiner novel on the right.

The shop's clothing aisles didn't disappoint either, with the funky short-sleeved dress by the Dutch Le Pep label and the tartan Zara skirt in delicious berry shades.

The colours of the short-sleeved jumper by Esprit were one hell of a job to get right. When I finally managed to capture the correct shades of green and purple, the pattern of horses and horseshoes were bleached of their palest of pink colour.

The orange cardigan with its lacy sleeves and inset at the back is by ... you'll never guess it ... Who's That Girl!

Saturday's weather could have been a carbon copy of Friday's. 

With a steep drop in temperature forecasted for the week ahead, it was high time I finished my seasonal changeover by getting the last of the warm woollen skirts and dresses out of the antique linen chest.

Most of my Summer frocks, in the meantime, had been languishing inside the built-in cupboard in the corner of our bedroom, victims of my procrastination habits. Now that I'd freed up some space in the linen chest, I transferred them to the correct vacuum bags and, with Jos's assistance, had our vacuum cleaner suck the air out of them. By the time I closed the lid on the linen chest for the season, however, I was starting to get a niggling pain in my lower back as a result of all that lifting and carrying around.

No rest for the wicked though, as back downstairs, we got a little surprise! News flash: our neighbour had finally removed the scaffolding from the passageway! It still needs a layer of paint in the colour of our choice, but that will only happen in Spring. Obviously, wild horses couldn't have kept us from sprucing it up a bit and putting some of our stuff back. We also decided to move our little yellow table and chairs - previously residing at the back of our garden - into the passageway. By then, my back was truly hurting so we reluctantly called it a day.

Anyway, here's a sneak preview ... more to come in my next post!

And yes, I wore this outfit to do garden chores! Minus the fur-collared jacket, beret and scarf, obviously. These I only wore for running an errand in the afternoon. In the garden I layered an old hoodie and my equally ancient denim gardening apron over my skirt and jumper, both for warmth and to keep my outfit from getting ruined.

I'd decided to take the Australian made skirt on its maiden voyage and added some additional sunshine by wearing it with a yellow leaf and flower patterned jumper which I found at Oxfam in October 2021.

My accessories - olive green belt, orange beaded necklace and orange and green marbled brooch - were a mix of charity shop and flea market finds.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reclining on the sofa, finishing my Sebastian Faulks book and making a start with The Story of England.

Any trace of lingering sunshine had upped and left on Sunday 27 November, leaving rain and barely 8°C in its wake.

The good news was that the pain in my back was as good as gone. Plus, we had lunch with our friends Inneke and Maurice to look forward to.

That morning, throwing caution to the wind and hoping this wouldn't be too taxing for my back, I dragged out a couple of Winter coats from my groaning coats cupboard. Then I played around with my wardrobe, assembling a selection of outfits for the week ahead. I'm trying to do this every Sunday, as I often lack time and inspiration on weekday evenings. Nothing is set in stone though. 

This is what I wore for lunch, an outfit I repeated on Monday, earning a rare compliment from my colleague, who hardly ever comments on what I'm wearing and whose style couldn't be further removed from mine.

My vintage polyester pussy-bow dress, which is from the Finnish Marketta label, was a Think Twice find back in October and had been patiently awaiting a cold snap like this for its first outing.

I picked up the green in its pattern by wearing a pair of green boots which I'm considering one of my best charity shop finds ever.

I layered a - charity shopped - mustard Zoë Loveborn cardigan over it for contrast and added a snake print belt at my waist, the latter a cheeky in-between Lockdowns retail buy in 2020. The brooch with its mottled green heart was picked up from a flea market.

Lunch was had at 't Kasteeltje (transl. Little Castle), a restaurant we have been to before, in the nearby village of Boechout. Its location is a turreted mansion built in 1900 in so-called cottage style, hence the castle moniker. The ongoing rain prevented me from whipping out my camera but here's a photo taken during a previous visit.

I had the most delicious fettuccini, with marinated chicken, spinach, mushrooms and candied tomatoes in a mild curry sauce. Yum!

And look, Inneke and I were wearing complimenting outfits!

Postcards from Bruges - Part 3

Hello, and welcome to the third and final part of my Bruges travelogue!

Following Wednesday's exertions, we'd slept the sleep of the dead, waking up bleary-eyed when our 8 am alarm went off.  Drawing aside the curtains, we were met by a sky full of rain-heavy granite grey clouds. Add to this the chilly 7°C which had accompanied us on our way to breakfast and our first thought was to stay put. Snuggling under a blanket and finishing my book sounded very tempting, especially after Veronique sent us on our way with a tray full of scrumptious homemade mini apple turnovers!

But surely that would have been a complete waste of time. After all, Bruges, with its plethora of museums, has plenty of wet weather options on offer.

With the forecasted return to Winter temperatures, I'd had the foresight to pack one of my warmest dresses, in a heavy-weight knit polyester, its pattern a mix of red and greyish white stripes and chevrons. If last time I wore it green was its accompanying colour, this time I opted for turquoise and cream. True to form, I was wearing turquoise opaques - with an additional pair of nude tights underneath - although you can only just catch the merest of glimpses of them.

On our last visit to Bruges, in that fateful February 2020, we'd traipsed around the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) after we'd visited its neighbour, the Gruuthuse Museum, as it was included in the ticket price. However, with our heads already filled to the brim with history and art, we we'd only had the briefest look around.

The 13th to 15th century church, with its 115.5 metre-high brick church tower - the second tallest in the world - illustrates the craftsmanship of the Bruges builders. Together with the St. Saviour's Cathedral and the Belfry, it dominates the city's skyline. 

While entry to part of the church is free, you need to purchase a ticket to see its true treasures. So, that's what we did, after which we made our way through the ticket barrier, joining a handful of other tourists and one or two of the omnipresent groups of school children.

I loved the wealth of colour and detail in the De Baenst Chapel, named after a prominent Bruges family. Deceased family members are commemorated with colourful, painted memorials in half-relief, called memorial scenes. They show the deceased, together with their patron saint and children, kneeling around the enthroned.

On the top left, the magnificent oak confessionals dating from 1697, considered one of the most beautiful baroque sculptures in Bruges. 

On the bottom right is the prayer chapel of the wealthy Gruuthuse family, dating from 1472.

Lodewijk of Gruuthuse (1422-1492), a powerful advisor to the Dukes of Burgundy, lived in the city palace adjacent to the church, now the Gruuthuse Museum. In the late 15th century, he had both buildings connected by a two-storey prayer chapel. From the upper chapel, the Gruuthuse family could attend mass without having to leave their palace. The lower chapel was probably intended for friends or courtiers. The priest could access the upper chapel to administer communion via a staircase.

The upper chapel is now part of the Gruuthuse Museum. You can see its interior, as well as a look through its windows into the church here.

The painting on the bottom left is the Last Supper by Pieter Pourbus, dating from 1562.

The star exhibits are the magnificent 15th and 16th century tombs of Mary of Burgundy and her father, Charles the Bold, which are situated in the choir of the church.

Duchess Mary reigned over the Low Countries in the last part of the 15th century. At the age of 25 she met her death by a fall from her horse on 27 March 1482. She loved riding, and was falconing with her husband, Maximilian of Austria, when her horse tripped, threw her, and then landed on top of her, breaking her back. She died several days later. Her husband commissioned the Gothic style tomb monument in 1490. 

Charles the Bold died in 1477 in Nancy, France, during a battle. Brought back to Bruges in 1550, his remains lie next to those of his daughter. While the design of Charles the Bold’s tomb is very similar to that of his daughter, it was made seventy years later and parts of it are already in the Renaissance style

I was completely enamoured with the painting on the top left, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows (1528-1535) by Adriaen Isenbrandt. Reflections thwarted my efforts to take a proper photo of it, so I downloaded it from the wonderful Art in Flanders website.

And then there's the famous Madonna and Child (bottom left), carved in Carrara marble in Italy by Michelangelo. It is the only one of his sculptures which left Italy during his lifetime. Alas, I wasn't able to make a proper photo of it either, so here's one I pinched from the Visit Bruges website.

A wonderful surprise awaited us when we stepped outside. All traces of imminent precipitation had miraculously disappeared - and we hadn't even burned a candle! - leaving a bright blue sky dotted with white cotton-wool clouds.

Too early yet for lunch, we strolled around the corner to the Gruuthuse Museum's courtyard, taking in its splendid architectural details and making the acquaintance of one of the museum cats.

After lunch, we retraced Tuesday's steps into the direction of the Beguinage, but rather than cavort among the daffodils, we booked tickets for a tour of  Brouwerij Halve Maan (Half Moon Brewery) at their Walplein premises later that afternoon.

With time to spare, we aimlessly wandered through the busy Katelijnestraat with its tourist shops selling the ubiquitous lace, waffles and chocolates. I loved the waffle bunting decorating the fanlight above the door in one of them. On the bottom right, an assortment of neuzekes (a.k.a. cuberdons) in an array of colours.  This traditional sweet was originally only available in the dusky purple version on the left.

Here, a refuge from tacky tourist-land can be found in two of the 46 small groups of godshuizen (almshouses) which are scattered all over Bruges, most of them clustered around a cosy courtyard.

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.

With their picturesque gardens and white-painted façades, they are true oases of quiet, tucked away at the end of an alleyway often pranged between rows of houses and shops.

The one in the above collage, Godshuis Spanoghe, has a couple of conveniently placed benches (with the cast iron griffin head finials typical for Bruges) overlooking one of the canals and offering a closer look at the back of St. John's Hospital.

We'd managed to obtain tickets for the 3 pm brewery tour so, after having fortified ourselves with another round of cappuccinos in a café across the square, we made our way towards the brewery's shop.

As we were joining an English language tour, an international group of beer aficionados had gathered here, and we were soon joined by a passionate guide who definitely had the gift of the gab.

The authentic brewery, the last one remaining in the centre of Bruges, is a family business with a tradition stretching back through six generations to 1856. This is where the Bruges city beer - the Brugse Zot - is brewed: a strong-tasting, high-fermentation beer based on malt, hops and special yeast. 

In 2016 a unique underground beer pipeline, some 3 km long, was laid from the brewery to the bottling plant in the suburbs. The pipeline you can see on the bottom right is just a gimmick, and isn't part of the real one.

Those of you who have been following me for a while might frown at all this talk about beer, knowing that both Jos and I do not drink alcohol. There is, however, an alcohol-free version of the Brugse Zot - which by the way translates as Bruges Fool - going under the decidedly ugly name of Sportzot, and which happens to be Jos's favourite.

Back in September, we even witnessed part of the hop picking and processing at the hop farm near Poperinge where the hops used to produce Brugse Zot and Sportzot are grown. See here and here.

One of the highlights of our visit included a steep climb on a narrow staircase up to the brewery's roof terrace, which challenged both my claustrophobia and vertigo!

It was just our luck that clouds had gathered in the meantime and that our faces were being stung by the first of the forecasted sleet once we'd made it up there! The panorama was spectacular though, so I quickly snapped a few photos before following the rest of the gang who had already taken shelter inside. It was only later that I noticed the gate, church and part of the Beguinage courtyard in the photo on the top left.

The tour ended with a free drink at the large on-site café, ours obviously being a Sportzot! 

By the time we left and were walking back to the car park, the clouds had temporarily dried their eyes and, with a parting glance at the splendid St. John's Hospital picturesquely lining the canal, we once again bade Bruges goodbye.

Back at the B&B, with the rain beating against our windows, we had our evening meal, consisting of rolls we'd bought in Bruges and the rest of Tuesday's tapas board, which Veronique had kindly wrapped up and put in the fridge for us.

Imagine our surprise when, after our final night in the lap of luxury we woke up to a Winter Wonderland on Friday morning. The temperature had dropped to barely above freezing point and we were positively shivering when we quickly dashed across to the main building for breakfast.

By the time we'd packed our bags into the boot of our car, thaw had already set in and we made it home without any hiccups or delays.

Sadly, we have come to the end of our adventures, and it will be business as usual in my next post.

But not before leaving you with the scene awaiting us when we drew our curtains that morning. Surely it couldn't have been more magical. Or perhaps it could, if they'd been unicorns instead of horses!