Belgium- Day 1: Bruges

Last week Steve had to work late, so he was able to get off at 1:30 on Friday. We were so excited! We were going to take the opportunity to see a few more things. The plan was to drive to Cologne, Germany. Go to the Chocolate Factory/museum and see a couple more things and then drive to Bruges, Belgium where we were spending the night. The drive to Cologne was supposed to be 3 hours then it was another 3 and a half hours to Bruges. We could be at our hotel before 10! We had to be at the factory by 5:00. We put the address into our wonderful GPS. It was estimating that we would get there at 5:30 because of our favorite things in the world, staus (traffic jams). So the factory was out of the question. We changed our game plan. We were going to stop in Trier, Germany to see some Roman ruins and then to Luxembourg, Luxembourg (how many of you have heard of that country before?) to see Gen. Patton's grave. So we headed off to Trier. We got there and looked and looked for these Roman ruins. We thought they would be in the GPS or that there would be signs. But we couldn't find them at all. We did drive on a really cool bridge that looked really old. But we never found any sites. Here is our proof that we went to Trier.

We continued on. Can you tell how thrilled Steve is about driving? We might be getting a little tired of these 6 hour drives. But they have all been well worth it!

We got to General Patton's grave at 6:10. It closes at 6:00...opps forgot to look that up. It looked like it would have been a site to see.

So onto Bruges. I guess that extra time didn't help after all. We still didn't arrive at our hotel until after 10. Plus they didn't understand that we had kids with us. So they had to set up the cribs. Steve and I finally got to bed a little after midnight. We just can't have a great weekend if we go to bed early!

We woke up bright and early, thanks to 2 darling little boys, and started our exploration of Bruges. Bruges was a very beautiful town. In the 14th century it was one of biggest towns in the world. Most of the buildings are well preserved neo-Gothic style, which I fell in love with. I love the look of the roofs, the stair like arches. Loved it!

We started out at the Market Square. The old canal came up to this square. All the farmers would ship their goods here to be made into a final product that would then we shipped out. Today it is filled with restaurants and old buildings. The statue behind us honors their victory over France in 1302.

The main attraction in Market Square is the Bell Tower.
This has stood over the square since 1300. It's bells rung every 15 minutes. We tried to climb the 366 steps to the top, but after 15 minutes of standing in a line that wasn't moving, our boys were done. So we moved on. This is us at the bottom of the tower.

We walked down Breidelstratt. This street was darling. Homemade lace, tapestry, chocolate and waffles are all sold on this street. These shops just lined the street. Each had there own little touch to call their own and make theirs better than the rest. The lace shops were amazing. I loved the little white lace dresses they had for baby girls. They had the shoes and hats to match. The outfit would have been so wonderful to bless a baby in. But I couldn't spend that type of money on a dress that would be worn once or even a dress that would have been wore a ton. They were pricey!

Of course, we had to stop at a chocolate shop. Belgium doesn't have a big chocolate company; it has lots of little family run chocolate shops. From the first bite, we decided that this is the BEST chocolate we have ever had. It is the essence of melt in you mouth. Look at Josh's face...he is concentrating on not letting that leave his mouth. YUMMY! The only bad thing about it is that it is not individually wrapped so it makes transportation hard. We are not sure it will last the 3 weeks until we come home. We will see if it makes it.

At the end of that street is the Burg Square. This square alone has 6 centuries of architecture. This square had a lot to look at. The first thing we saw was a group of people with coolers and some sort of alcohol. Most were dressed nice. THey were celebrating in front of the town hall. We are assuming that a couple just got married. Our Rick Steve's book says it happens a lot. This is me checking out the inside of the Town Hall.

The next stop was the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Here is the Legend of the Holy Blood: Several drops of Christ's blood were preserved in a crystal phial in Jerusalem. In 1150, the patriarch of Jerusalem gave the blood to a Flemish soldier as a thank you for rescuing his city from the Muslims. This soldier returned home and donated it to the city. It is now held in this Basilica for people to come and see. We were pretty excited about seeing this. It sounds like a cool idea. We went inside the church. It was amazing! There were painting depicting the story of how the blood got here. Though 3 huge arches was the phial. The phial was being watched over by 3 priests of some sort. There was a line to get to the phial. We sat and watched everyone go up to the phial and cross themselves and worship the phial. It was interesting to see how many people were really worshiping this phial. Since there were silence signs all over and our boys weren't being that silent, and since we really weren't there to worship the thing, we decided it was best to leave. It was a really neat basilica.

On the corner of Burg Square is the Crowne Plaza Hotel. This is one of the cities newest buildings. It sits atop the ruins of the town's oldest structures. We had to go inside and ask the receptionist very nicely if we could see the ruins in the basement. We must look like nice people because he let us go and see. The basement is lined with an old stone wall.

These are oak piling that held up the moat to the city.


They also found a town water hole which turned up a lot of ruins that they put back together. These were pretty neat.

Can you believe this is all in the bottom of a hotel? We were so glad to have Rick Steve's book so we knew about this. Most people just walked right past this hotel.

Next we had to have some Belgium fries. This is where fries were really started. I don't know how they got the name French Fries. These were by far the best fries we have ever had. I don't know what they do differently, but they were dang good!

While we were eating fried, Zack found a little metal model of the Bell Tower. he thought it was neat. He kept going and looking at it and touching it. He was fascinated.

We continued checking out the city. We found the original iron hinge from the city's gate. It use to close up at 10:00 PM.

Then we came upon an amazing view of the bell tower with the canal and some other old buildings. It was a perfect spot for a great family photo. You know, one that can go on the Christmas card. This is what we got:
Lovely, huh? Josh pulling his funny face and Zack way more interested in his fingernail than the stranger taking our picture.

It was getting time to try a Belgium Waffle. The Belgium eat waffles as a dessert or as a snack with their tea. They are much different than the ones we have for breakfast. They have some sort of sugar coat on them. I don't know if they put sugar in the iron or what they do. It is like sugar cooked into them. Then they have a million different toppings: strawberries, hot chocolate, nutella, caramel, whip cream, bananas, and any combination you can come up with. So here is us with our lunch:

Do you think Zack is excited? Chocolate for lunch...I'm a great mom.

Next stop was the "Church of Our Lady." This had a huge steeple, but it was under construction. So the picture isn't as cool as it could be, so you don't get one. Just a pic of the front. This church is famous for having one of the few Michelangelo statues to leave Italy during his lifetime. The statue is "Madonna and Child." It is Mary with young Jesus standing in front of her. Needless to say, it was amazing!

We were also amazed at how much the Catholics worship Jesus on the cross. There is nothing about the resurrection or anything of what happened before the cross. All three of these events are what gives us the opportunity to live forever. It made us realize how lucky we are to have the true gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Next we ran into the Minnewater. This is just a very peaceful lake. It was nice to sit a relax for a while.

From here, we walked around and enjoyed the town a little more. We really liked this place. It was relaxing and beautiful. The buildings were amazing. When we were done, we headed to Brussels to check out the country's capital.

Here is a slide show of some more Bruges pics just to help you get a better feel of what it was like. We loved it there!

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