Birthday Bash in Bruges and Brussels

It's been two months since I took Tom on his mystery birthday trip.  He was traveling when I was planning the trip so I was sending him hints by e-mail on where we were going.  Hints like: One of the cities we are visiting has been called the Venice of its country.  The country we are visiting is serious about its beer and its not Germany.  We are visiting two cities in a country with two official languages.  He wasn't really into the guessing game though.  I eventually did tell him where we were going.  So, when we were packing for the trip, he already knew we were going to Belgium to visit Bruges and Brussels.
 

The Bell Tower

I did an earlier blog that included photos of our eating and drinking exploits, featuring a lot of photos from our Belgium trip.  I never really shared any photos or information about the other stuff we did while on that trip.

Seeing as how I've got to get around to returning the Rick Steves guidebook I borrowed to plan the vacation, I figured it's now or never on finally posting some more pictures from the trip.   

The anchor and easily most photographed building in Bruges' Market Square is the Bell Tower.  It dates back to 1300.  It's 290 feet high and it's 366 steps to the top.  It is possible to climb to the top and take pictures, which we did.  On the way up you also pass the carillon room, where 47 bells play mechanically on the quarter hour.  We fortunately were in the room when the bells were ringing. 

Bruges Market Square

It's a bonafide Bell Tower

The works

The giant barrel

View from the Bell Tower

The canals of Bruges have given it the reputation of being the Venice of Belgium.  Tom and I really enjoyed wandering the streets and walking along the canals.  Here are some pictures.

Even blocks away you can see the Bell Tower

Near the Beginjnhof, which is inhabited by Benedictine nuns

Pedestrian and bicycle friendly

Burg Square

In Bruges there is the Church of Our Lady, which dates from the 13th century.  Entry into the church is free but if you want to see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child and other church art you have to pay.  I don't always like the idea of paying to get into churches but I really wanted to see the Michelangelo sculpture.  And, I reason with myself, maintaining and rehabbing these old, historic churches is VERY expensive and the entrance fee paid by tourists helps cover some of those expenses.   

Church of Our Lady

They don't let you take pictures of the sculpture so I had to find one online.  The Madonna and Child is said to be the only Michelangelo statue to leave Italy during in his lifetime.  It was bought in Tuscany by a wealthy Bruges businessman, who is actually buried under the statue.  Michelangelo carved the Madonna and Child in 1504, while taking breaks from his work on David.

Along one of the canals about a 15 minute walk from the city center is a string of four windmills.  The St. Janshuysmolen windmill is open to visitors but we got there too late and weren't able to go in.

St. Janshuysmolen Windmill

While this was Tom's birthday trip, there was one must see for me in Bruges -- the Chocolate Museum.  The museum covers the history of chocolate and features a lot of artifacts and information.  There is also a demonstration at the end of the tour.

The Chocolate Museum

A surprise find in the Chocolate Museum - Marie Antoinette's china

A live demo.  Making pralines.

So, after our fun in Bruges, we headed to Brussels for two nights. 

The heart of Brussels's old town is The Grand Palace.  This area has served as the city's market square for 1,000 years.  The pictures I'd seen online made me think the square was bigger than it actually is.  I guess it is still good sized.  You wouldn't be able to get a good picture of the whole thing unless you were on top of one of the buildings.  You'll have to make due with my piecemeal photos.

Guild Halls

Town Hall

Swan House and Brewers' Guild

In addition to visiting The Grand Palace, we also walked through the Galeries Royals St. Hubert.  It is Europe's oldest still-operating shopping mall.  It was built in 1847.  We were there on a Sunday though so most of the shops were closed.

We also made a quick stop by the famous Manneken Pis statute.  There was a crowd gathered around taking pictures so we just quickly took a photo each and moved on.  The statue is less than two feet tall and the fountain was made in 1619 to provide drinking water for the neighborhood.  While he was all natural when we were there, he apparently has quite the wardrobe and is dressed up for special occasions.  I've posted my picture below and then found a few online photos showing some of his outfits.  Some of his outfits are even on display in a room at the City Museum.

The fountain - this photo is from the Internet

Manneken-Pis

We also visited the Park of the Cinquantenaire.  The 19th-century Belgian king Leopold wanted Brussels to rival Paris.  In 1880, he celebrated the 50th anniversary (cinquantenaire) of Belgian independence by building a huge monumental arch flanked by massive exhibition halls.

Wings leading to one of the exhibition halls.

We also took the train out to see Atomium, a giant, silvery iron molecule that has escalators connecting the various "atoms."  It was built for the 1958 Universal Exhibition.  We didn't go into the molecule but we took some pictures.  It was pretty big.

So that pretty much hits the highlights of our trip to Belgium.  I had booked us train tickets for this trip and on the ride home we had a stop in Cologne, Germany.  It was just enough time to go outside the train station and take a couple pictures of the city's famous cathedral.  The cathedral was supposedly the most ambitious Gothic building project north of France in the 13th century.  Its construction was stalled during the Middle Ages and it wasn't completed until 1880.  But while most of it was built during the 19th century, it is still technically a Gothic church.  It is undergoing rehab right now thus the scaffolding and tarps.