Bruges Episode 6: 't Zand

From the St. Saviour’s Cathedral (previous episode), we just walked along, not having another specific destination in mind.

a pretty house...which turned out to be an artist's studio (and home)

a peek through the window

The artist came out and invited us in. He told us how he came to settle down in Bruges (at first, he was spending just a weekend there, like us) and about his work, abstract and semi-abstract paintings (I like semi-abstract better, since I at least manage to see something in the painting :P Like the flowers in the previous photo)

taking photos of his work to put on his website

Heard of him before?

a building with some drawing on its wall

fish in a window

the concerthall

This fountain was right behind me when I took that photo.

The square is 't Zand, the marketplace. According to this webpage, it is the biggest open square in Bruges. (I sure had a hard time finding the name of this square...everywhere I found the concerthall mentioned, I found 't Zand, but I didn't know what that meant!) It's not surprising that it's not in the town centre...in the centre there isn't enough place for a square this size :P

There was an event for animal rights that day...organised by a biker's association.

the stage...they sang songs in English

We could buy coupons to exchange for food and drinks, then sit down to eat.

there was even a snake-man

A lot of booths were set up for the occasion.




Then we headed back towards the town centre.

a little "garden" we walked through

Here's his name, if you happen to know this guy...

taken from the garden of a convent called the Beguinage (Begijnhof)
(Or does Beguinage mean convent?)

We had also passed by this place on the boat. Remember the photo taken from the opposite angle?

So that's Bruges for you...on Sunday afternoon the others went back to France, while I continued my visit of Belgium (since I had nothing better to do lol), taking the train to Antwerp instead. And that, as usual, will be for another post ;)

Bruges Episode 5: Covering unseen territory

The next day we took a different route to town, so that we could see different sights.

Jerusalem church. There was supposed to be a lace museum next door, but we didn't see it...maybe because there's no sign on the door??

This should be St. Anna's church

the front door

We came here on the boat the previous day. The U-turn place, remember?

See the Jan Van Eyck statue?

nice buildings

the front of the statue (the back faces the canal)

another nice building (seen from the same square)

the fries museum

yummy...okay, not really, I prefer real fries :P

Guess what? There is a National Order of the Gold Cornet for people in the potato-frying profession.

in English

They even plant potatoes upstairs ;) (that's the ceiling)

a statue outside a building

said building

We came across these fake goodies in a shop selling Christmas decorations (why Christmas? Don't ask...we went there in August)

St. Saviour’s Cathedral (Sint Salvators-Kathedraal)

Is this the front? I think the previous photo was a side door. But I'm not too sure...

In the next episode, we walk randomly and stumble upon the biggest square in Bruges. Stay tuned! (Do I sound like a commercial or what? :P )

Bruges Episode 4: Windmills and beer

We went to see the windmills along the outskirts of town.

Can someone tell me that that wooden thing is for?

a bridge being lifted up to let a boat pass

some more canalside scenery

and more

This ship is a home. There is a mailbox on the bank beside it. A boy cycled up when we were looking at it, and we asked him what the boat was. He replied "It's my house." lol

windmills!

my travel companions

the canal

the weather got better while we sat there

and better...

looking back from another windmill

the Kruispoort (a gate at the bridge)
Check out what's written at the entrance...it's a UNESCO thing! (the "thing"=world heritage, I'm guessing :P )

the view from the bridge (that's where we came from...the bank with windmills, I mean)

the other side of the Kruispoort

The Kruispoort wasn't far from our hostel (actually we stayed in the budget hotel, it has both hostel and hotel rooms). So after going back, we were lazy to go out to town again (not that there was really that much we hadn't seen) and spent quite some time in our rooms. That night, we ate in the hotel restaurant.

We received this coupon when we checked in; we could sample Belgian beer for free if we ate at their restaurant.

our beer samples
I like Hoegaarden quite well...the abbey beer not much. And the cherry beer...it was like cherry-flavoured Shandy :P

a huge clock on the wall (I have no idea what it's for...must be an ancient relic :P )

Then we called it a night and left the rest of our adventures for the next day. Zzzz...