Ghent, Bruges & Ypres

The next day we went to Ghent. We picked up another couch surfer named Ayşegül from Turkey. She was lovely. Nice, fun girl and we hit it off at the start.
We began with lunch at a great Turkish pita place Chris knew of, then we went to the historic city centre.
We started at the Vrijdagmarkt, a main square with many cafes. Then to the Mad Meg, a cast iron canon. We stopped at a few different spots where Chris would tell us to pose and take pictures. Like this canon... we climbed up on it. It was fun.
Next, was the Castle of the Counts followed by the streets along the canal towards St Micheal's Bridge. The canal was beautiful. Small boats here and there and vibrant colours from plants and flowers. Interesting to see the back doors on the buildings right above the waterline... with no railing, stoop or ledge. Just open the door and bam! Drop straight into the water. My guess is, it is there so one can open the door and get into a boat... if you had one.

The view on St. Micheal's bridge would have been a great place to take a good photo, but again, people were setting up for the festivals and the view of the old buildings were blocked a little. But I could see how lovely the spot was. A line of churches were amongst the view. There was a tall belfry, St Bavo's Cathedral and St Nicholas Church.
We went into the St. Bavo's Cathedral to see the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb painting. It is considered the "absolute masterpiece of medieval paintings." 
One thing about Belgium, the old architecture on the building facades are stunning. Especially with all the arches, triangular tops, sculptures and various painted colours. Just beautiful!
That was pretty much the main sights to see so we headed back to the car and went home. After dinner we went out to watch the last post. Though we didn’t have a good spot, it was better than last time. We planned for the next day to be better. There was a lot of people and many offerings of remembrance. Very touching.

We went for a walk along the city wall following the water reservoir. It was a pretty walk, many ducks, swans, geese and willow trees. Nice area for running and walking the dog. Once back at the house Chris brought out his guitar and played some songs and we all sang along. Was really fun! He’s a great player.
Friday, we had a lovely breakfast of crepes and headed to Bruges. Chris was able to be our guide again and took us on a nice route through the city, starting in the colourful market square. Fantastic colours, a great tall belfry, plentiful busy eateries and horse carriage tours.

I wanted to see the Choco-story museum to learn about Belgium chocolate. Had to know why they have one of the best!
That was our second stop. Ayşegül came with me for the hour long tour. We got a couple samples at the entrance. Which is always a good start to a tour! We learned first were the cocoa bean originated. Down in Central America. Then about the Mayans, how they used cocoa beans for currency with the Incas, Aztecs and other tribes. About the tree itself, how the beans were cultivated and lastly, how it went international. The Spanish had some of the choco drink while in Central America and decided to bring it back to Spain. From there the chocolate industry grew. Different countries tried new recipes and Belgium was the first to place fillings in chocolate, called pralines. That’s what made Belgium chocolate so popular back then. 
We had lunch and walked to the canal. What a beautiful place! All the buildings looked old and with all the plants, trees and greenery around, it gave off a romantic feeling. Very pretty. Many boats giving little canal tours passing under the bridges. The buildings here are combined of old and new. The face of a building is preserved but the rest of the building could be demolished and rebuilt with the original front placed on. So some of the buildings say 1660 but are actually newer when you go inside.
Many tourist shops of course, but what really jumped out at me was the lace shops. So many and with amazing work. Chris said many of the elderly woman wove the lace, but unfortunately, the woman that does the demonstration wasn’t around. Oh well. Still nice to look at all the work. I think now that I’ve taken up cross-stitching I appreciate the different arts of sewing more. It’s tough work requiring a lot of patience and time.
I also saw a gallery by an artist that interested me, David De Graef. It was both dark and innocent work. Very bizarre and interesting for me. Glad I popped in.
Next, we visited the Burg square known for beautiful administrative and historical buildings.

The buildings varied in architecture from Gothic, Renaissance to Neoclassicism. The Town Hall (Stadhuis), court house and chapel were magnificent. But the real draw was the chapel built from the 1100's, known as the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Stunning exterior with bronze statues and medallions of the Count of Flanders. The lower half inside is a basic brick Romanesque style, St Basil chapel. But the upper half is in contrast to the rest... prismatic in decor. Fantastic golden alter, decorative religious frescoes, silk sunscreens, stain glass windows, curves arched sides, and what most come to see, the venerated relic. A phial with a piece of cloth said to have the blood of Jesus Christ on it.
Breathtaking place, even for one not religious, you can't help but be awed by the ambiance in such a small tucked away place.
Leaving Burg square, we stopped to enjoy the view at Rozenhoedkaai, a popular photo stop where two canals Groenerei and Dijver, meet. And another spot along Dijver where you can see the spire of the Church of Our Lady. Such a beautiful city. My favourite so far. I most definitely find Bruges more romantic than Paris.
From there, we saw the Church of Our Lady and walked along the streets checking out the numerous shops and cafes.
After, was the UNESCO Heritage site, Ten Wijngaerde. A Flemish béguinage, which is where religious woman, widows or spinsters could live an independent committed life outside the recognized orders with their poverty and fidelity vows. Their picturesque houses surrounded a grassy area with leafy trees, a church was in the front. It was like a mini village of peace in a city.
After that, we checked out the fountain at the square near the station and then headed back to Ypres. Once there, we went for some ice cream. The Italian ice cream shop had many flavours and was great quality. And the price was low! Great spot. And we had a better view at the last post this time. Yes!

The next day, Chris was picking up his mother to go to church and a lunch-in near De Panne, so Ayşegül and I went to the beach. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a sunny day. The first one in weeks for me. Of course that would happen when we planned a day at the beach!
So, after walking from one end of the town to the other along the beach, we decided to go to the town centre to get a drink. In town a market was on. I love markets! All the neat new food and interesting nick-naks.The display of food art at one kiosk was amazing.
We spent just over an hour exploring the market, then picked up some food at the grocery store for a picnic back at the beach. The sun was finally peeking through the clouds.
The wind sure picked up and the light sand was blowing along the surface, coating our bodies in it… and getting in places it shouldn’t! After 20 mins, we’d had enough and went to the bar for a beer.
I tried the Kriek St. Louis beer. It’s a cherry beer that was their biggest seller. And it was awful! Haha. Wasn’t beer at all, just cherry syrup. Yuck. Won’t try that again. There are other less sweet Kriek beers, but I’m to grossed out to try it again. Plus, artificial cherry flavour is one of the flavours I like the least. So that was enough for me. If anyone else wants to try the Kriek beer, don’t get the sweet one!
Chris picked us up after that and we headed straight for Lille to get Ayşegül to her train. She was heading to Paris.
After saying our goodbyes, Chris and I were both pretty tired from the busy week and decided to have an early night.

In the morning, we headed out to look at a farm out in the countryside. Chris was thinking of buying a house out in the countryside where he could maybe have a tiny farm for himself.
The scenery around the place was gorgeous! Such a peaceful place. The house on the otherhand… you could see it would have been great in it’s time. But now, it needed a lot of work.
From there we went for a little walk in the woodland nearby. His friend Nathaniel was having a BBQ to celebrate his birthday and was just down the road from there. So, after the walk, we went to his house.

He was a little shy and soft spoken, but very nice. He showed me around his garden. What a beautiful garden! Many flowers and trees on the left side, and fruit and vegetable on the right. Lots too! At the back, he had some lounge chairs and a hammock.  Cherry trees around us. Birds singing and a great view of the countryside landscape. Such a nice place.
Lilian and Jean-Phillipe arrived at the same time we did. It was really nice seeing them again. We all conversed easily, always a story going. Another friend of Nathaniel arrived (unfortunately, I couldn’t chat with him much as I don’t know any Dutch and he spoke only a little English) and also Leon and a girlfriend of his. Everyone was so welcoming. It didn’t bother them at all to have this foreign stranger among them. They welcomed me with open arms and hearts.
We all had a nice walk up in the woodland (twice in one day for Chris and I, yay!), played a bit of a lawn bowling type game and then had our vegetarian BBQ. It was delicious!
The evening came to an end much too soon. I was really having a great time. Chris and I were taking Leon and his girlfriend to Brussels so they could catch their last trains in time. It was at least a 90 min journey, but I didn’t even notice the time. It flew by. Leon forgot his bag back at Nathaniel's, and since Lilian and Jean-Phillipe were heading towards Ghent, they met us in Brussels to give Leon his bag. How nice is that! Great people. We said our final goodbyes then and Chris and I headed back to Ypres.
We had to get up early the next morning as Chris needed to go to work. He works near Ghent, so I hung out in the city centre for a few hours until he finished. It was a great time to be here in Belgium. They crowned the new King on Sunday in Brussels, and all the towns were celebrating and having festivities.

It was smoking hot walking the city centre with all the pavement radiating heat. So, I found a shaded area near the canal to read. Then popped into a café for a cool drink. Only did a little wandering.

Once Chris met up with me, we sat in a shady spot and watched two guys start spray painting some saran wrap they wrapped around two trees. I don’t know what they plan to do with it once they were done. Not like on paper where they could keep it. Cling film would just rip or stick to itself. Maybe they did it just to entertain people and they could leave it up displayed for the day? Don’t know, but it was fun watching them regardless.
At 4 pm, there was a choir singing in a church that Chris wanted to see. It was actually really good. A class of Performing Art students from England did an hour long show. Singing and acting. Some exceptional singers in there.
After dinner, we watched a few street bands and street performers than found a “learn how to dance” spot. They were teaching Salsa. Chris started in, and after letting my food digest a bit longer, I jumped in too. It was tricky. The teacher was speaking all in Dutch, so I had to wait for people to move then try to copy them. It was fun though.
Folk dancing was in another location. Funny how folk dancing is all so similar to one another, no matter what country you’re from.
By 8 pm, I was spent. Lots of busy days and late nights caught up with me and I was ready to go home. Even snoozed a bit in the car. But, once at the house, I had to find a place to stay in my next destination as I hadn’t found a host yet. Chris told me about a last minute group on the couchsurfing website and I tried that. I ended up getting two responses, but only one mentioned how long they could keep me. So I picked that one. My host for Amsterdam was named Marcos. Last minute works better for him as he doesn’t know his work schedule until one or two days before. So, it worked out.

This morning I got up a little early to head out to the In Flanders Fields Museum. I thought it would be great to learn a little about World War I in Belgium.
Back when the Germans had attacked the country, it showed how many Belgians had to flee. Some of them were told they may never be able to come back. That must have been very hard to hear. Being told you may never be able to come back to your own country.
It had little personal stories of some of the nurses and soldiers. Not just the Belgian soldiers, but French, British and German as well. On display, I could see all the different uniforms the soldiers wore, weapons used, what the trenches looked like (like in Passchendaele), soldiers personal possessions and some letters they wrote. When I got to the part about the use of the chlorine gas on the people, it brought tears to my eyes. To think that everything died, not just the people, but all mammals too. Rats, horses, dogs, etc. All life following the gas cloud, gone. What a horrible thing to witness, being a German soldier following that cloud. And to know that the chlorine burned the flesh. Many people were burned from the acidity of it. If they survived, they were left horribly scarred. I never really knew how the gas attacks worked, and now… I kind of wish I still didn’t. Humans can do such horrible things to one another. But hopefully, we all learn from it and will never use it again.
I didn’t know that Ypres was burned to the ground. The whole town was demolished from the war. However, when rebuilding the village, they tried to keep the building reconstruction to prewar conditions. So, even though it’s newer, the town still has that older feel to it.
However, the museum also has another story. It was once the Cloth Hall. The business of cloth and fabric making attracted many rats and mice, as they used the material for nesting. So, the people brought in cats to hunt them and rid them of their pest problem. Thus a local nick name "the Cat Hall". Back then, they threw cats (yes, a live cat) from the top of the belfry. How brutal!! Speculation on theories as to why... overpopulation of the cats, superstition... who knows. But now, as a tradition, they have a triennial cat parade and a jester throws stuffed toy cats off the belfry. Of course, I’m a bleeding heart for animals, so this story disturbed me a little. But I have to say, this town has quite the history!
After rushing to pack, Chris and I headed to Ghent so he could drop me off at my bus stop. Now I wait for my ride to take me to Amsterdam.