Day 176 – Friday 31st August 2018
A bit of a chilly morning in Gent. Into town early to take a look around St Bavo’s cathedral before our free walking tour starts.
Like most cathedrals St Bavo’s has a shedload of stunning sculptures and paintings and you have to wonder who carved all the sculptures and who painted all the paintings.
The things you can achieve when you don’t have TV or the internet to distract you.
The most famous thing in St Bavo’s Cathedral is something called the Gent Altarpiece which is a series of paintings and is considered a masterpiece. It is also apparently Europe’s most nicked painting. The most famous part of the altarpiece is the Adoration of the Mystic lamb. No, I’ve never heard of it either.
Adoration of the Mystic lamb by Hubert & Jan van Eyck,
To view the Adoration of the Mystic lamb you have to pay €4 to go into a special chapel where you are not allowed to talk. If you want to discuss the finer points of this masterpiece you must take your ticket to another chapel at the back of the cathedral where they have a copy and where you can talk.
Later our walking tour guide told us the original Adoration of the Mystic lamb was currently in a museum being restored. So people were paying €4 to see two copies!
On to the tour; interesting facts about Gent…
Gent was once Europe’s second biggest town after Paris. It was so successful because of high quality cloth they made in Flanders. Once woven the cloth was put into a large vat containing a mixture of dyes, hot water, fuller’s earth and urine. A ‘fuller’ would then stamp on the cloth in this noxious emulsion for three days – or even longer. After this treatment it was like felt and could be cut without fraying. It couldn’t have been much fun being a fuller though.
The Castle of the Counts
The medieval Castle of the Counts was last invaded in 1949 by students protesting at a rise in the tax on beer.
The students still celebrate the invasion by getting well aled-up at Sint Veerleplein every 19th November.
Three lamp posts at Sint Veerleplein are wired up to the local maternity hospitals and when a baby is born the parents get to press a button and the lights come on for a minute.
Jacob van Artevelde is a local hero in Gent as he re-established trading links with England during the 100 Years War, his arm points towards England and his palm is open in friendship. I wonder what he would have thought about Brexit.
After the walking tour it was lunchtime.
A truly serious dollop of mayonnaise on today’s frites!
All in all I’m pretty impressed with Gent, it’s a good mixture of the old and the new and it is beautifully looked after.
We’d had a tough day walking round the cobbled streets of Gent.
Our fave bar in Gent.
They do a Belgian version of a yard of ale
We were a little less ambitious, a bottle of Kriek, a beer flavoured with cherries. Lovely!
Day 177 – Saturday 1st September 2018
Beautiful morning in Gent and we made the short journey to Camping Memling at Brugge. Once hooked up we wasted no time getting into Brugge town centre on Zippy.
Brugge is far more touristy than Gent.
It was difficult to find fridge magnets and tee shirts in Gent here in Brugge you are tripping over them.
We booked ourselves on a free walking tour and were given a quick history lesson then shown the sites of the city.
Apparently Brugge was a very important and wealthy trading town in the 12th & 13th centuries but the people rebelled against their ruler Maxililian I. They locked him up for a few months and killed his best mate. In revenge he banned all foreign trade in the town and Brugge quickly fell into ruin.
It stayed that way until a book called Bruges-la-Morte was published in 1892. The Victorians loved the sketches of the dilapidated medieval town included in the book and Brugge quickly became a tourist hotspot. All its wealth now stems from tourism which the town is completely given over to.
They know people come to Brugge for its medieval architecture so that’s how they like to keep it.
The main square in Brugge
Brugge Belfry
Of course Belgium is famous for its chocolate…
I think Johnny has rather overdone it on the truffles!
its waffles…
Waffles; the tour guide told us only to buy waffles that we could see being made as the fresher the waffle better they’d be. I think she was right.
and its beer
This brewery makes Brugges most famous beer, Brugse Zotten, Fools of Bruge as Maximilian I like to refer to the drunken townsfolk
and it has five 3.25km pipelines to its bottling plant. The pipes are obviously buried quite deep.
Speaking of beer when we were in Aix I had a gorgeous Belgian beer. I had forgotten its name but Julie tracked it down and we bought some today along with a glass.
All beers in Belgium have their unique glass.
Tripel Karmeliet. It’s brewed from wheat, oats & barley to a 1679 recipe from the Karmeliet convent. It is quite simply fuckin’ gorgeous.
Back at the van Julie hadn’t drunk any water all day and asked if she could slate her thirst with some Tripel Karmeliet. She liked it and wanted another with her dinner. She didn’t realise it is 8.4% strong until it took effect 😀
Day 178 – Sunday 2nd September 2018
Lovely morning, after a bit of a laze around we went back into Brugge town centre. Today we wanted to go up the Belfry and wander the streets.
It took about 50 minutes of queueing to get into the Belfry then 366 steps up to the top. From the top you can see out across the city.
The Belfry was originally a watch tower and different bells used to signal different events be that being under attack or simply the start of the working day or knock off for lunch.
Markt square from the Belfry.
Down from the tower we had a wander around the streets.
The inside of the Basilica of the Holy Blood.
In the Basilica of the Holy Blood they have what they claim to be a veil of Christ’s blood. I wonder if they had its DNA analysed, I’d put money on there being a bit of viking DNA in there and if Jesus did have some Viking DNA maybe they could modify the 10 Commandments to reflect his Viking heritage, Thou shall rape and pillage! Might make the church more popular.
Julie’s favourite view in Brugge
I didn’t realise Timmy Mallet was so famous in Brugge.
€7 to get in! I could get two large frits and mayo for that.
Seriously what on earth could I learn in a Friet Museum? Friets were first fried in Brugge in 1585, mayonnaise and friets became popular in 1847, tomato ketchup began to be served with friets in 1908, curry sauce was introduced in 1987?
I am pleased to say I didn’t spot this appalling piece of chocolate.
They have a triennial arts event in Brugge, this is one of 2018’s exhibits.
Our guide yesterday said all road rules favoured cyclists and they do behave appallingly. They ring their little bells and expect everyone to jump out of the way.
The Lac d’Amour.
Julie and I on a bridge a over the Lac d’Amour
Day 179 – Monday 3rd September 2018
My Dad has been in hospital since Friday night with pneumonia, it’s not the first time. Last night my elder brother told me he had developed sepsis so we motored to Calais, got a morning ferry back to Dover and arrived at the Manchester Royal Infirmary just before 8pm my Dad died a few minutes later.
Day 180 – Tuesday 4th September 2018
Spent the day with my brothers and Julie sorting out my Dad’s flat. I wouldn’t say my Dad was a hoarder but once something was in a draw or cupboard I don’t think it ever came out.
Day 181 – Wednesday 5th September 2018
Picked up my Dad’s Death Certificate today so that means we can get started on sorting out his affairs. Luckily my younger brother already had lasting Power of Attorney over his financial affairs so we had a good starting point.
Managed to get into my Dad’s Kindle Fire which had his email account. Turns out the day after he died he won on the National Health Lottery!
Day 182 – Thursday 6th September 2018
The house is now cleared and we now have a handle on all my Dad’s affairs. Just need to sort out somewhere for a buffet after the funeral.
Treated Julie and myself to a curry at MyLahore in Rusholme. I asked for hot and got it 😀
The funeral isn’t for 12 days. That means we will be too late to travel up to the north of Scandi to see the northern lights. We have decided to head down to Spain next. In the meantime I booked 3 nights in Llanberis to see if we can walk up Snowdon.