pimlico4: In Bruges.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

In Bruges.

Wasn’t that a movie?

Haven’t seen it but I can imagine they made the most of the quaint little streets, lovely canals and bridges, medieval buildings and pretty parks. Bruges has been just the right size for us to get to know in the 10 days we were here. It is about the same size as Dee Why and has a population of just 20,000. We have walked, cycled and Segwayed our way about town every day and can now get around without a map! As long as you don’t venture beyond the outer canal and occasionally look up to find out where you are in relation to the belfry then you will eventually arrive back at home.

Home for us has been a great 3 level house in the tranquil northern quarter of Bruges on BalieStraat. It was wonderful to have the space to spread out and be messy for just a while. Everything we own for this year fits in to our car and every now and then it feels good to take it all out and rearrange and take stock. Mmmm, no room for that Lancel handbag or Philip Treacy hat!!

Our first few days were a little overcast but then summer arrived and we were kept awake at night by the airless heat and sunlight beyond 10pm. Chocolate, beer, lace, swans, bears, Michelangelo’s Madonna, markets, waffles with more chocolate and pretty flowers, we did it all and still had time for a trip to Dunkirk in between.

Bruges was lovely, easy and bright. A beautiful, uplifting place to be and we will remember with our five senses; feeling the cObBled stones under our bicycle wheel as we explored the town (Why do all the bikes have thin racing wheels that feel every single bump?), seeing the centuries-old Bruges skyline of spires and canal bridges (Boy are there a lot of these), hearing the sweet sound of the bells (every 15 minutes there are the sounds of bells somewhere in Bruges, thankfully our local Sint-Gillis Kerk built in 1258 starts at a respectable 8am), smelling the stagnant water of the canals ( catching a whiff of this foul air will quickly bring you out of the dreamlike romance that you are wandering in, but just as quickly it will vanish) and the unforgettable taste of Belgian chocolate from one of the 49 chocolate boutiques.( Mmmmmmm yum, we indulged in just one scrumptious chocolate each evening until we had a massive blowout on the last night when all hope for the diet was lost ) .

Swans on the canals

After the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1488, Bruges went through some troubled times. The townspeople, enraged by new taxes, rose in revolt and beheaded the bailiff, councillor and town administrator (whose name was Pieter Lanchals). According to legend, when the duke Maximilian of Austria regained power, the citizens of Bruges were ordered to keep swans or long necks (langhalzen- in reference to the administrators name) on the canals for all eternity as their punishment.

We met this family of swans on a landing by the canal and were attacked by the protective father swan.

These two are trying out the 'beheaded' look

Swans in the Springtime

Swan and cygnets - perfect

The Bear of Bruges

When Baldwin with the Iron Arm,

the first Count of Flanders , visited

Bruges in the 9^th century, the first

creature he saw was a big brown bear.

After a fierce fight the Count killed the

bear and proclaimed the bear to be

the symbol of the city. Needless to say,

there are statues all over the city of

this now adorable and brave bear.

BruLee

1 comment:

Mel CJuly 12, 2011 at 1:12 AM
mmmmmm.... chocolate
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Books that Madison has read this year. Will she get to her goal of 52?? YES. Congratulations Maisy

72. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
71. 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
70. Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
69. Mr Majeika and the Ghost Train by Humphrey Carpenter.
68. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
67. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
66. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
65. Robin Hood by Stephen Colbourn
64. Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
63. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
62. Dragon Moon by Carole Wilkinson
61. Garden of the Purple Dragon by Carole Wilkinson
60. The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan
59. The Best Kept Secret by Emily Rodda
58. The Cut-Throat Celts by Terry Deary
57. A Whole Nother Story by Cuthbert Soup
56. Gladiator - Fight for Freedom by Simon Scarrow
55. Ancient Rome with Cicero the Cat
54. King of the Cloud Forest by Michael Morpurgo
EXTRAS 53. Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpugo
*** 52 52 52 52 52 - HOOORAAAY!!! *** Blood Ties by Rosemary Hayes. It is an AWESOME book about a kid whose grandma dies and soon she gets very ill. She also has these wierd dreams about her grandma's childhood. Will she die of the illness? What do her dreans mean? Find out in the book.
51. Pony Pals by Jeanne Betancourt. There is this group of teenage girls and they live on a farm and one day an orphan foal gets dropped off there and they want to take full control so soon enough they find out that it is not as easy as it seems to look after a foal.
50. Sweet Valley Twins by Francine PascalI. It's about a girl called Jessica who likes her brothers enemy Ben and her brother Steven is purposefully dating Jessica's enemy, so it is like who can get more revenge.
49. The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford. I first found out about it from my dad because he watched it when he was little.
48. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. The book is almost the same as the movie. My favourite bits are at the end and if i told you them it would ruin the story. I prefered the movie to the book because it showed you more.
47. Merlins Dragon by T.A.Barron. This is now my 3rd longest book i have ever read. I think there must be another book that follows in the series. It is definately in my top 3 favourites. I am not going to tell you about this book because it would ruin the story if you are thinking about reading it.
46. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Roderick Rules By Jeff Kin. At first I thought I had read all the books in the series but then I found out I hadn't read this one so like all the others in the series I loved it . The main thing I liked about it was the mum bucks and I asked my mum if we could do mum bucks in our family then we had a little talk and it ended up as a NO.
45. I Am Jack. by Susanne Gervay. This book is about a boy called Jack and a bully at his school. Jack can't tell anyone except his sister Samantha and his friend Anna about the bully. His mum is too busy and his teacher wont listen.
44. James and the Giant Peach. by Roald Dahl. I had heard the story on my i-pod and i loved it then my birthday came and i got the book from Donna, Garath , Olivia and Charlotte. It is a story of a little boy and he once had a lovly life untill his mother and father had to go to London and while they were there a rhinoceros escaped from the zoo and gobbled them up. So poor James had to stay with his mean, lazy aunts, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge...
43. Rose Blanche. By Roberto Innocenti. This book is about a girl who lives her life in World War II. One day she sees a truck and a little pale boy jumps out and runs down the steet to accidentally run into the big fat mayor who roughly shoves him back in the truck and when they open the truck she sees lots more poor boys and girls. She was so disgusted by how they were treated so she follows the truck to a place she wasn't allowed to go..........She sees the Jewish people at the camp.
42. Flat Stanley. By Jeff Brown. Once there was a little boy who woke up with a white board on top of him. When his mum lifts it up he is FLAT. Soon his brother gets jelous and then the adventure begins.
41.Clarice Bean Dont Look Now. By Lauren Child. It is about a girl called Clarice Bean and she has a best frend and her name is Betty Moody and ther bouth LOVE this book charickter called Ruby Red fort.but B etty Modie moves away and there is a new girl at school. Clarice Bean thinks she is best friends with the school bully and is trying to get Karl into huge trouble off all the teachers. Is Clarice Bean mistaken for the girl??? Find out int the book.
40. An Elephant in the Garden. By Michael Morpurgo.It is about an old lady in a nursing home and she tells the nurse and the nurses son about her life when war was happening. She was escaping the fighting in Dresden and had to take an elephant with her. The elephant saved her life when a bomb blew up their house.
39. L-L-L-Loser by Catherine Forde. It is about a boy and his brothers. His brothers make a copy of the main characters song called L-L-L-Loser and get heaps of money.!!!!!!!
38. Storm Boy by Colin Thiele. It is about a boy called Storm Boy and he becomes very attached to a pelican and the pelican saves 6 men's lives and they offer to pay for Storm Boy to go to boarding school and then something really sad happens.............
37. Pippi and the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren. It is about a girl called Pippi and her father is a king on an island so she is a princess. All the childreren there play in this cave and in there is a whole 2 weeks supply of coconut for heaps of children.
36. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. It is about a girl called Pippi and she is the strongest girl in the world and it is about her life with her 2 friends.
35. Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell. I read this book ages ago but I for got to put it in on the list. It is my 2nd favourite book and my 2nd longest book. It is about a greedy class pet rat but Emmy lets him go and then finds out that if he bites you once you hear him and the second time you shrink and the 3rd time you turn into a rat yourself.
34. The Dragon Keeper by Carol Wilkinson .This was the biggest, fattest book I have ever read and it was brilliant. It is about a slave girl from Huang Ling mountain and her family sold her when she was young. She had to work hard for her master. One of her jobs was to look after the dragons. One dragon dies and then she goes on a journey but everyone tries to stop them. This is the best book I have read all year. 10/10
33. Pony Pals - The Baby Pony by Jenny Betancourt. I read this book in the car while we were going to the beach in Copenhagen. It is about an orphan foal who nearly dies because it did not have enouph fluid in him. It was a 7/10
32. The Four Musicians of Bremen by The Brothers Grimm. I read this in Bremen but the four animals ( the donkey, the dog, the cat and the rooster) never get to Bremen. They saved a robbery from happening with their lovely sounds. I saw the statue in Bremen but it was only small. I thought it would be much bigger.
31. Tin Tin and The Black Island by Herge. I read this when we stayed in Bruges because it was written by a Belgian man in 1930. It is a comic book about a very adventurous boy called Tin Tin and his dog called Snowy who gets into lots of mischief. Snowy got drunk on whisky and got a smack from Tin Tin. There are lots of other comic books with Tin Tin adventuring around the world. I've always liked reading comics and I will definitely read another Tin Tin comic book.
30. The Burnt Stick by Anthony Hill. It is about an Aboriginal family and the boy has a white father so this boy gets taken away from his mother and the story tells how his mother tries to keep him. It was very sad but I loved reading this book.
29. The Web by Nette Hilton. My teacher from Distance Education sent this book to me to do work on it and i really enjoyed it. It is about a grandma and spending her last few days with Jenny her great grandaughter and all their friends including a possom, a blue tounge lizard and the new 7 legged spider.
28. The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett. I would recommend it for my next door neighbour Gwen who loves donkeys, and anyone who likes animal stories. Two sisters go to their favourite woodlands and find a soldier who ran away from the war and could get shot if any one else knew. They go back the next day and find out that he is blind. Read it if you want to know more. I would give it a 9.5 /10
27 . The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume. It is about a sister and a brother and how their family copes.
26. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. I watched this movie last year for school and I thought it didnt have much difference to the movie. The ending was abit different.
25. Somtheing Invisible by Siobhan Parkinson. It is about a boy that has a new next door neighbour girl who has heaps of little sisters and a brother but.......soon they have one less . Jake tries to help.
24. Whistle and I'll Come. by Jean Ure. This book was about a family that has always wanted a dog so they go to the rescue centre and find it hard to only choose one so they come back with three dogs. Two puppies and one older dog called Bess (Beth). There is a really, really sad part at the end of the book.
23. Take 6 Puppies. by Bette Paul. It was about six baby puppies and one was a runt. Sally liked the runt the most and she tried to convince her dad to keep him. They all went to families close to her.
22. The story of Robert the Bruce and The story of William Wallace both by David Ross. They were about Scottish history and had lots of gruesome killing and after we read the books we watched Braveheart the movie. So if you cant stand killing I wouldn't recommend it for you.
21. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. By Judy Blume. It is about a boy that gets soooo frustrated with his brother. I read it for school and I hope my teacher sends me another book in the series.
20. Horse Pie. By Dick King-Smith.It is about a donkey and lots of horses trying to stop a robbery.
19. Fern Gully by Diana Young It was a story about the creatures in a rainforest and this evil spirit Hexxes comes and ruins everything.
18. Paradise Palace by Wendy Orr. It's a funny story about a family and what they will do to get this paradise house and is paradise always as good as you expect??
17. The 39 Clues - Book 3 The Sword Thief This book was AWESOME. each book in the series is better than the one before.
16. Cool by Michael Morpurgo. This was about a boy in a coma and how he comes back.
15. Heartbeat by Sharon Creech. I read this book for Distance Ed and it was quite good. It was like a long poem about a 12 year old girl and her family and friends.
14. The 39 Clues - Black Book of Buried Secrets. I didn't read this book in order. I just read the parts I wanted to know about.
13. Gulliver's Travels. by JONTHAN SWIFT. A really funny book about a man and his life. I would give it a 8.5 out of 10.
12. Shah Jahan. I read this book with mum and Charlotte. It is about the man who built the Taj Mahal and how he loved his wife so much. It was good because it is a true story and I saw the Taj. It is amazing that he built that for his wife to be buried in.
11. The 39 Clues - Book Two. I didn't really get the ending but I think I will when I read Book 3
10. Mahatma Gandhi - A biography by Wilco. He was a clever man who did everything he could to make his people free and happy.
9. The Paw Thing by Paul Jennings. Do you really think Singenpoo read the book?
8. Little Brother by Allan Baillie. I read this with mum and it was so good to read it while we were in Cambodia and seeing the places that Vithy saw when he was escaping the Khmer Rouge.
7. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I thought it was a sad and happy book. Very nice.
6. Ivy and Been - Bound to Be Bad. by Annie Barrows.I really enjoyed it. This my first ever ebook I read on the computer. I'm going to look to buy another one. It was good.
5. The 39 Clues - The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan. So exciting I can't put it down.
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Last Straw. by Jeff Kinney. This is even better than the first two Wimpy Kid Books. Awesome
3. Around the World in Eighty Days ...by Jules Verne. It is a story abought a man called Phileas Fogg and his servent Passeppartout. He bet another rich man that he could go around the world in 80 days.
2. Fantastic Mr Fox. By Roald Dahl. I have already read it but I have to read it again for Distance Education.
1. FREAK STREET Wizardsons on Holidays. By Knife and Packer. Charlotte gave me this book for Christmas and I absolutely loved it sooooo much.