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. 

Antwerp

I woke Lyn at 8.45 with breakfast and we decided to catch the train to Antwerp.

The train station was impressive.

Our walk took us along the main pedestrianised shopping street past jewellers shops selling Antwerp's diamonds.

Next came sculptures of Flemish painters and a children's fun fair complete with climbing wall.

A side street took us to the old stock exchange building. It is still grand but, apart from the architecture and wall paintings of maps, the only business happening was clarinet-playing busker.

The cathedral was impressive. It had two Rubens paintings on display. However, Lyn was most impressed by a modern sculpture demonstrating that faith need not be a burden. Lyn lit the now customary candles and unburdened herself of all her Euro coins.

The market square included the town hall and guild halls topped by appropriate gilded sculptures.

In the middle of the square was a sculpture showing a hero ridding the area of a pesky giant by chopping off his hand and throwing it into the River Scheldt.

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We'd had enough by then, so we walked back to the station for the journey back to Bruges. We finished the day with a visit to the supermarket. 

A Walk Around Bruges

After yesterday's exertions, we took it easier today. I walked to a supermarket while Lyn did phone calls. We enjoyed a late home-cooked breakfast and then used the local tourist app to walk around the sites. It is a beautiful city. Souvenirs were purchased, waffle consumed and pictures taken. Then it was afternoon rest time.