Charming Brugge

The small town of Brugge in Belgium is preserved from the 15th century and the city center is a World Heritage UNESCO site. It is fitting that the city name is derived from the word ‘bridge’ as it is a city of canals. We spent two wonderful days and nights in Brugge.

After visiting mammoth stone and brick churches built in the 14th and 15th centuries, we took a boat ride to get the lay of the land.

We also visited the Trappist Monestary brewery in Brugge and enjoyed a wonderful hour of conversation with new friends from Germany and America while tasting a sweet dark Quadruple beer that even Sue liked. For a wine and cocktail afficionado, she is expanding her tastes! Le Trappiste Brugge is one of 169 Trappist monasteries worldwide, but only eleven of those are authorized as an Authentic Trappist Product, and six of those eleven are in Belgium.

On Palm Sunday we attended worship at the Church of Our Lady, the second tallest brickwork tower in the world (379’) and containa a white marble sculpture of the Madonna and Child created by Michelangelo around 1504, purchased from Italy by rich Brugean merchants, who donated it to this church in 1514. Worship was Roman Catholic liturgy, all in Flemish (much like Dutch). Although we could not understand the words, the service was meaningful to us, even as we followed everyone else’s queue on when to stand and sit. Instead of the traditional palm fronds that worshippers would raise in the US, those in attendance carried small sprigs of greenery to represent Palm Sunday.

We booked a two-hour Segway tour on Sunday afternoon, thoroughly enjoyed it, and went far beyond the town center – extending all the way to the outer regions of the city to see the windmills.