Belgium: Brugge

We spent a great day in Bruges, Belgium.  We parked in a parking deck and walked down a cute road with tons of chocolate shops.  We were a tad early for the normal Belgium arriver, so everything was still closed.  We made our way down to the Church of Our Lady, but found it was still closed for a few more hours, so we decided to walk around the city and explore for a while.

As we were walking past the church we went through a cute archway and found ourselves in the most enchanting courtyard.  It was one of the cutest places I have ever seen and the view of the church was pretty great.

We learned that this place is called the Bonifaciusbrug, which is an early 20th century pedestrian bridge that has the most spectacular views of the canal and town. We were so lucky we came to the town early, because we were able to enjoy the views all to ourselves. I guess during tourist season, the bridge is massively packed.

We spent a good part of a half hour or more here just taking in the beauty around us.  The kids loved looking in the river trying to spot fish and ducks.  Kevin and I loved looking at the quaint little houses that lined the river.  The weather was a little damp, but it just added to the beauty.

After taking in the gorgeous scene, we kept walking and found our way to the Belfry of Bruges and the city square and market in front of it.  We honestly walked past the shadow of the Belfry and all our jaws dropped and we just turned in a circle taking in the city square.

The buildings all had these sharp points and steeples.  There were angels and beautiful reds and earth tones all around us.  All the fronts of the buildings were so adorable.

By the time we got to the town square, the town was waking up and the Market was opening.  There were cute restaurants all over.  I really wanted to climb the 266 steps up the Belfry, but we had already walked a bit and we didn't think the kids would last up the stairs.  So we decided to eat our packed lunches on the benches and enjoy the music from the bells of the Belfry.  We took our time and let the kids run around and just enjoy this cute little town.

After this kids finished lunch we decided to walk the streets some more.  As we were walking we found a super delicious and cheap gelato shop.  The kids were so excited to see it and since it was so cheap, we all got some really yummy Gelato.  I love how there is gelato all over Europe.

Just around the corner from the gelato shop is Bruges most famous chocolatier, Dumon Chocolatier.  The lines were pretty long, and the store was pretty small, so I stayed outside with the littles while Kevin took the older two inside to get some chocolates.  They got some amazing pumpkin spice chocolates and some melt in your mouth mint chocolates.  They were so delicious, that Kevin ent back in and ordered more.  He said he originally had a cherry one, and when Big Sis asked for it, the lady said she couldn't have it because it had alcohol, so luckily Kevin exchanged it for a different chocolate.  That would have been super funny though, if Kevin had eaten it, spiked and all.

We originally were going to take the kids to the Torture Museum Oude Steen Brugge, but when we walked by it looked a little more gruesome then we were prepared for.  Kevin walked in and came out and said no way, not for our littles.  So we took pictures outside and moved on.

The Church of Our Lady was our next destination.  We walked back to the church and were happy to find it open and the crowds weren't too bad.  The main reason we wanted to go here, is to see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child.  The church felt as all other Gothic huge stone churches feel, large and cold.  The ceilings were so high and the stained glass was gorgeous.

We enjoyed seeing the church, there were many relics and tombs that we weren't expecting to see. You have to pay a feee to go in the back of the church where the relics and the Madonna and Child are.  There was a beautiful wood carved confession booth that was super neat to see see.

We saved Michelangelo's Madonna and Child for last, and were disappointed to find the altarpiece under construction.  I was grateful, however that the statue was still visible.  Due to the construction, we had to stand very far back from the statue, so it was hard to see any detail or even fully appreciate the statue.  We learned that this statue is the only one that Michelangelo allowed to leave Italy while he was still alive.  This statue was part of looting during the French revolution and during the Nazi German revolution, luckily it was recovered both times.  

The kids did so amazing in the Church, that we made our next destination the Minnewater Park. As we were walking to the park, we passed by a huge duck pond.  There was a cute watermill and a huge field with so many ducks and swans.  They all really enjoyed seeing the birds.

I thought the park would have a playground, but I was wrong.  It did have a huge field that the kids ran and played tag and chase though.  They enjoyed being able to just run around. After a good run around, they all plopped down on a bench in exhaustion. 

We jumped in the car and decided to make a pit stop on the way home at the Sit-Janshuismolen, which are original and active windmills from the 18th century.  Monster and Little A were way too tired and complained that they didn't want to walk more, so I stayed in the car with them and Kevin and the two older girls ran to the windmills.  It was a great day and all the kids fell asleep in the car with in a few minutes of driving back to the hotel. 

Belgium: Ghent

Hey there. This is Big Sis and I'm gonna tell you all about me and my family's adventure to Ghent, Belgium. There was so much that happened that day. 

First, when we first arrived to the town that we wanted to explore, the first thought it had was, "Wow. There are so many buildings." It was true though. Every lane, there was like 20 buildings all squished together. However, it was a super cute town square. All the churches dated to be super old and the hotels and housings were all still holding their old looks. It looked a bit like a fairytale.

After walking around the square and exploring for a little but, we decided that we wanted to go explore the Het Belfort van Ghent first. 

There were a lot of stairs and so dad, Little A, and Monster took the elevator, while me, mom, and M&M took the stairs. It was a bit of a hike up, but there were a couple different rest levels along the way. Each level told stories about the church and so we took our dear sweet time getting to the top. 

We met up with the rest of the family at the top, but I really wanted to hear if the bells still rang and it was 5 minutes left to the hour, so me, mom, and M&M waited just 5 minutes to hear if the bells still worked. Sadly, then didn't operate the bell in that specific tower. But it was still neat to see the music box and all the cords and read how the bells actually work using the gigantic music box.

It was a total bummer to not hear the bells, but the tower's view was super cool and totally worth the walk up the stairs. We walked all the way around the top and got some great views of the village.  

After leaving the Belfry, we wanted to see Saint Bavo's Cathedral and the famous Van Eyck's "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" altarpiece. The church had a lot of really interesting arts and marble statues. It was very cold in the church and it was just so huge.  It was a very gothic looking church with so much stone and marble.

The vaulted ceilings were pretty neat to see.  It is always interesting to look around a different church and see what they believe in. There were many Saint's and the stained glass was very beautiful and the different sections of the church were fun to look into. 

After looking around the church and seeing all the different rooms and stuff, we got in line to see "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb".  There are no photos allowed in the small room that holds the altarpiece, so we put our camera away, bought an auditor, put on our headphones and learned all about the altarpiece.  It was smaller than I thought it would be.  But the history behind the different sections of the piece were so fascinating to learn about. I'm really glad we got to see this because it is considered to be the greatest artistic masterpiece in Belgium, and one of the most important artworks in the early Northern Renaissance period.  The altarpiece consists of 12 panels and is only about 11 feet by 15 feet (see, so small).  It was neat hearing about how two of them were stolen, the one with John the Baptist and the Judges one.  The audio tour told us how the person was supposed to return both of them, but only John the Baptist was returned and to this day, no one knows where The Judges are.  The history continued talking about how during WWII more panels were taken, and how they kept being moved around until in 1945 when it was finally returned but in a damaged state.  When they restored the alterpiece, a copy of the lost Judges was also made to complete the altarpiece.  This artwork has seen pillage, theft, fire damage, salt and war damage and I think that added to the overall super neat-ness of seeing it.  I'm really glad we took the time to see it.  

After leaving the church, we went on a river cruise tour. We explored the little town a Ghent in a really fun way and we learned a lot of history of the town. 

One cool thing we learned was that the fronts of the buildings were not allowed to change and had to stay in the historic Belgium style, but the back of the buildings were funny to see because they were modern with glass and stuff.  Our guide took us down one of the back alleys and told us all about how the fronts can't change so people show their personalities through the back. I'm glad the front can't change because it made this little town so original and cute.

The tour took as past old schools, butcher warehouses, an ancient library, and lots of other historical sites of the little city. We even went past the Gravesteen Castle which made us excited to go there, and we decided that would be our next stop.

After the cruise tour was done, we walked to the Gravensteen Castle. The castle looked huge on the outside. Many of mom's friends said that the castle was fun to explore so we decided to try it out. 

We got some audiotours and started to walk around the castle. The audio guide voice was really fun and it told us some really fun stories and imagination picture and plenty of cool facts to easily pass a history test of this particular castle. The audio guide was super funny and it's because we learned that he is actually a comedian in real life.  It made the tour so entertaining, I enjoyed it.

I have to say that the most interesting and weirdest spot of the castle tour was the dungeon room. Here, the guide gave the most stories and there are some really horrifying stories of what happened to many people that ended up in the castle dungeon. Anyways, back onto the good stuff.

We finished the tour and started walking in the direction where we parked the car.  Near the castle we stumbled upon another top remarked site, graffiti lane. There was more graffiti in this lane all together than the graffiti I have seen in my whole entire life. It was so cool to see all of the art. It was super cool to walk through. 

The alley went on and on and on.  We were enjoying the art and Monster decided it would be fun to just start running and he took off.  We had to run so fast to catch him and just barely got him before he ran through the end of the alley right into a busy road.  We decided that was our cue to go back to the car.  

As we were walking back to the car, Monster asked to be held and was whining a lot, so daddy held him, and he fell asleep within minutes of being held, I guess he was super tired after all the walking and stair climbing.  We walked past the famous Korenlei on the way to the car.  The Korenlei is the historical landmark that is an amazing view of the river and the cute houses.  It was a neat way to leave Ghent and say good bye to a super beautiful town and a really fun day.  I loved the little town of Ghent so much.