Okay, so given that I ended up finding out I had fewer and fewer days last week to actually go anywhere, I did not end up in Italy. I do, however, have tickets booked to go to Paris and Italy over my break the first week of May. What I DID do last week was go to Bruges, a very small, tourist-friendly, medieval/gothic town near the coast of Belgium. I warn you, as a fan of history and architecture, the number of pictures is....well, probably a bit silly. Of course, as a fan of chocolate as well I simply HAD to go visit the chocolate museum. I was in Belgium, after all. I also had some rather excellent beer. The Triple Karmeliet is excellent, I highly recommend it.
I also spent some time in the folk museum, where I learned how lace was made. I also discovered that Belgium (or at least Bruges) is well-known for its beautiful lace. Sadly I don't have any pictures. The museum would have been very unhappy :(.I went and saw Michaelangelo's "Madonna and Child," housed in the beautiful Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady, or Notre Dame of Bruges, if you will, haha).
The hostel was...definitely an experience. Though I suppose I should count myself lucky: they had towels, showers, clean bathrooms, and a complementary breakfast. And a very knowledgeable bartender who looked like Orlando Bloom. Sounds good to me!
Generally, though, I just walked around the city. Apparently I was present for the nicest weather they've had all year! It got to be a whole 24 degrees Celsius on my first day, and was a solid 18 degrees on my second, with hardly a cloud in the sky!
Quick non-Bruges updates: I'm working on National Poetry Writing Month at the moment, thus the recent delay in posting these pictures (though I will confess to not really wanting to go through the over 100 photographs I took while in Belgium). My family is coming to visit next week, and I'm sure my parents will be SHOCKED to hear I'm actually looking forward to it ;).
Anyway, here are all the pictures I took while in Belgium.
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| The interior of the gorgeous Antwerp central station. |
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| More of the train station. |
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| My first view of the city from the train station. Obviously not a tall city, haha. |
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| One of the many canals. |
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| A lot of the streets were nearly empty. Most people congregated around the shopping areas. |
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| Both of these pictures are of St. Salvadore's Church. |
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| I believe this is the city hall building in the Markt square. |
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| Markt. And lots and lots of bicycles. |
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| Bell tower. Also in the Markt. |
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| Main building in the Burg, the original city center. |
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| Another canal. |
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| Door to the hostpital museum across from Our Lady. |
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| Front doors to Our Lady. |
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| I just loved the perspective :) |
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| Flying buttresses. |
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| More images from along one of the canals... |
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| I liked the pink! |
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| SPQA, SPQB...can't be a coincidence. |
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| Snazzy looking bike rental building. |
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| Simply made me chuckle. |
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| I did NOT end up buying a beer here. It was tempting, though. |
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| Don't remember what the tower was attached to. |
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| This is the Jerusalem Church, which is apparently a replica of a church that once stood in Jerusalem. |
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| The Black Cat tavern, attached to the Bruges Folk Museum. |
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| One of the original city gates. The whole city is actually surrounded by a moat. |
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| Again, I just loved the perspective. I hope you enjoyed the pictures! |
