We were surprised that the language of Bruges is Dutch. After years of watching Hercules Poirot I was
certain the language was French. “I am
not a Frenchy – I am a Belgy!” But some
parts of Belgium speak French and our guide likened their French to Canadian
French and said it’s not the same as French French. And let me assure you this town was FULL of
cobblestones. I don’t want to see any
more. And I don’t want to walk on
anymore. Ever.
Imagine our surprise when we went to the Cathedral of Our
Lady and they have a Michelangelo statue called Madonna and Child – it is
beautiful. It was designed for a
cathedral in Sienna but the Archbishop didn’t want it because the statue of the
child is naked. The statue was in an
area under renovation so I don’t know how well our pictures came out but the
statue reminded me a lot of the Pieta.
Beginning and end. Joy and
sadness.
Wednesday the weekly market was out and we saw a whole bunch
of food I would have loved to try however we had an appointment at the
chocolate museum. There was an extremely
knowledgeable chocolate chef who showed us the difference between cocoa beans
depending on area. We were given a cocoa
bean from Costa Rica and one from Peru and lo and behold they were indeed
different. I liked the one from Costa
Rica best but the rest liked Peru better and the chef said that it was because
the Peru bean was sweeter. Then we had a
demonstration of how they make their chocolates which are always filled because
they like the snap of the chocolate and the gooey inside to contrast. Then they made a big deal about real Belgian
chocolate and chocolate that comes from China.
He said that M&Ms are MADE FROM COCOA POWDER AND NOT REAL
CHOCOLATE! CAN YOU IMAGINE??!! Sacrilege!
He said that any chocolate which leaves a waxy taste in your mouth is
not good chocolate. Like we didn’t
already know that. J Then we went to the palace court – I’m
telling you these buildings are gorgeous and OLD. We saw the Belfry Tower, the Town Hall and
the Chapel of Blood where they allegedly have some of Christ’s blood.
So then Tom and I went on our free time to a restaurant
where we tried to have an authentic Belgian dinner and I had Flemish meat stew
with pomme frites and Tom had steak with pomme frites and mayonnaise which is
apparently how they eat them in Belgium.
Tom didn’t eat them that way but I did.
Then we went looking for some Belgian lace for the traveling hat and
when I described to the lady what I wanted she said a lot of people come in
here looking for that shape and I have some here and it really is very pretty handmade
lace. So Jennie will need to help me
figure out how to combine my beautiful wool trim with the Belgian lace
trim.
We then went through the narrowest street in Bruges which
used to be a street where no good was done and was also a public bathroom. Then
we walked back to the bus – which was no small walk – and walked by the Lake of
Love – Minnewater -- which was really very pretty and romantic.
So we came back to the boat – bitter sweet as it is our last
night – and played trivia – although one of the questions was who was older
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck or Goofy – please -- and lost so we took our Regent
points and Tom got a visor.
So now we are packing and tomorrow we get kicked off and
then we are off to Stonehenge and another adventure.
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