Brussels Part 2

Bank Museum 

Cartoon Museum

Cathedral

Street Art

Brussels

We caught a fast train from Bruges to Brussels. The 600 metre walk to our hotel proved confusing because roadworks blocked our way, but we found our hotel and treated ourselves to coffee in the lounge. When we finally gained access to our room we discovered what we were paying for.

Energised by our extravagance, we headed for the national art gallery. We caught the 71 bus. We really are very good at managing the practical business of getting around new cities. Google helps a great deal!

The gallery proved a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. The star attractions, for us anyway, were the paintings by Brueghel. His religious paintings are usually just wonderfully detailed depictions of daily life in 15th Flanders. Getting up close to see the details was great fun.

His painting of the defeat of Satan was crazily imaginative. 

There was some interesting modern work and even a famous painting that I'd always assumed would be in Paris. 

On the way out, we caught a glimpse of the sort of architectural marvels for which Brussels is famous.

In the evening we walked through a ritzy shopping arcade. The shops were mostly very expensive fashion outlets and exotic chocolate shops.

 

After a short walk we reached Brussels main square which was full of tourists. It was very impressive. 

After some dithering about dinner, we made the excellent choice to return to the nearby bar and street food place we had used at lunchtime. 

Damme

Damme is a town, not a Flemish expletive. Today we decided on an expedition by paddle-boat along a canal from Brugge to Damme. Once this would have been a journey between two economic giants, but they lost contact with the sea and their prosperity with it. 

The journey started with a long walk to the dock past some pretty bridges and reminders of a less touristy past.

Once we were on the boat it moved down the canal much more slowly than the other tourists on bicycles.

In Damme we had lunch at a cafe and then explored the church.

We passed by some odd sculptures out front of the town hall.

Over the canal was a windmill.

There was an excellent viewing device with speakers that showed and narrated the history of Damme.

On the journey back we admired the countryside, waved at cyclists and I tried the local beer.

We caught an Uber to the supermarket and headed home for a quiet evening.

Ghent

 We caught the train to Ghent and then the tram to the shopping areas. We walked towards the centre of town and then struggled to work out which huge churchy building was the cathedral. Ghent was massively wealthy 600 years ago - and wasn't shy about showing it off.

We figured it out and headed for the Ghent Alterpiece, an incredible work of genius by the van Eyck brothers. The detail was amazing. Lyn, who didn't think much of Rubens yesterday, was very impressed. 

We walked into the next big church to discover a gentleman playing the organ above us. We sat and listened till his replacement arrived.

Ghent turned out to be very pretty, even if the water in the canals looked uninviting and every picturesque street was decorated with parked bicycles or trams - or both. 

We stopped for a drink and Belgian frites. The latter were unexciting but we enjoyed sitting and people watching.

The local castle was impressive from the outside.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our day trip. We caught a tram, train and bus home for a quiet evening.