Up at 8 am after a great night sleep. Did I mention I love my bed and breakfast?! I had a wonderful breakfast and chat with Maggie, the owner, then headed out.
The owners had already told me that the bell tower was closed for renovation :-( so I knew not to expect to go up in that. I headed to the church next door, the church of the holy blood, and it closed - just as I got there! Bummer. Okay, moving on, I hightailed it to the brewery (De Haalve Maan) to make it for the twice-a-day tour at 11 am. I got there, and........... CLOSED. Until the 13th, aka the day I am leaving Brugge. BUMMER.
Having struck out on the planned, timed activities,I retraced the walking tour to see the fish market and a couple of other sights, then headed to the Groeninge museum, which has a huge collection of Flemish primitive painters. They also have a special exhibit ending Sunday, Imperial Treasures, which is a collection of paintings on loan from the museum in Vienna. I ended up spending 2 hours looking at the art, which is unusual for me! It was absolutely wonderful.
By the time I got out, I was starved and decided I needed a waffel. I found a teahouse and got a coffee and a waffel with chocolate, yum! Restored, I headed out to the Church of Our Lady to see the only Michelangelo sculpture that left Italy during the artist's lifetime. The sculpture and the church were both gorgeous, and I ended up spending more time than planned in there, too.
It was fairly late so I decided to hit the necessary shopping, drop it at the hotel, and go back out. So I bought chocolate, beer, beer, and more beer... my arms were sore by the time I got back to the hotel, I'd bought so many bottles of beer! I don't know if I have room to add wine from Paris....!
For dinner I headed to Cambrinus, named for the king of beer (you thought that was Budweiser, didn't you?!?!?). I got the beer lover's menu, which was cheese croquettes (with beer) for a started, carbonade (stew - with beer) for the main, and flan (with beer) for dessert. It was all very good, but the service slacked off after I got my starter and then the 2nd beer was the wrong one. So I decided to go elsewhere for my nightcap.
Back to t'Poatgersgat, the bar from the night before - which was MUCH more crowded tonight. I got a seat at the bar, though, and the bartender remembered me. After a couple of beers I started chatting with some locals, and ended up having a couple more beers and staying a couple more hours than I intended! I made it back to the hotel around 1 am - set the alarm for 8 am, and went right to sleep.
The owners had already told me that the bell tower was closed for renovation :-( so I knew not to expect to go up in that. I headed to the church next door, the church of the holy blood, and it closed - just as I got there! Bummer. Okay, moving on, I hightailed it to the brewery (De Haalve Maan) to make it for the twice-a-day tour at 11 am. I got there, and........... CLOSED. Until the 13th, aka the day I am leaving Brugge. BUMMER.
Having struck out on the planned, timed activities,I retraced the walking tour to see the fish market and a couple of other sights, then headed to the Groeninge museum, which has a huge collection of Flemish primitive painters. They also have a special exhibit ending Sunday, Imperial Treasures, which is a collection of paintings on loan from the museum in Vienna. I ended up spending 2 hours looking at the art, which is unusual for me! It was absolutely wonderful.
By the time I got out, I was starved and decided I needed a waffel. I found a teahouse and got a coffee and a waffel with chocolate, yum! Restored, I headed out to the Church of Our Lady to see the only Michelangelo sculpture that left Italy during the artist's lifetime. The sculpture and the church were both gorgeous, and I ended up spending more time than planned in there, too.
It was fairly late so I decided to hit the necessary shopping, drop it at the hotel, and go back out. So I bought chocolate, beer, beer, and more beer... my arms were sore by the time I got back to the hotel, I'd bought so many bottles of beer! I don't know if I have room to add wine from Paris....!
For dinner I headed to Cambrinus, named for the king of beer (you thought that was Budweiser, didn't you?!?!?). I got the beer lover's menu, which was cheese croquettes (with beer) for a started, carbonade (stew - with beer) for the main, and flan (with beer) for dessert. It was all very good, but the service slacked off after I got my starter and then the 2nd beer was the wrong one. So I decided to go elsewhere for my nightcap.
Back to t'Poatgersgat, the bar from the night before - which was MUCH more crowded tonight. I got a seat at the bar, though, and the bartender remembered me. After a couple of beers I started chatting with some locals, and ended up having a couple more beers and staying a couple more hours than I intended! I made it back to the hotel around 1 am - set the alarm for 8 am, and went right to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment