Bruges, Belgium - Thursday October 15, 2015

After breakfast, Gail and I were off for a walk around Bruges.  It was quite cold and we were very happy that we brought along gloves.  We walked around some “off the beaten path” residential streets to see what the town of Bruges looked like outside of the main tourist area.  I took many photos, but unfortunately the sun was not shining today, which has been the case for the past four or five days. Everyone we speak to in the area says the cold and overcast weather is not normal for this time of year.  We plan our trip, but have no control over the weather.  After a bit of walking, we came across De Halve Mann brewery.  I had taken the brewery tour here four years ago, so we did not feel it necessary to take the tour.  The brewery has been expanded and renovated since I was here in 2011.  Even though we were not interested in taking the tour, we could not resist having a glass of some fresh brewed beer ………. it was quite refreshing and delicious.  Once we finished our beer we continued strolling around the town and went into the Sint-Janshospitaal Museum (Saint John's Hospital).  This along with the Groeningemuseum (Groeninge Museum) in Bruges is among my favorite museums in Europe.  The Sint-Janshospitaal Museum is one of the oldest preserved hospital buildings in Europe.  Throughout the museum you see what life was like in a medieval hospital, seeing many paintings, medieval medical instruments, pieces of furniture, and more.  It was quite fascinating to see all of this, and think about what life and medical facilities were like over 500 years ago.  Additionally, there are several masterpiece paintings by the famous Flemish artist, Hans Memling, who painted in the 15^th century. After thoroughly enjoying this museum visit, we walked around Bruges a bit more, just taking in the sights and people.  Both Gail and I are amazed at the number of tour groups here in Bruges, which apparently are a tremendous help for Bruges economy …… at least 15% of the stores in Bruges sell either chocolate, waffles or pastries.  At 5 PM we went to the Bruges NH hotel where we knew some of our friends from Florida would be arriving and staying for a few days.  Sure enough, by about 5:05 PM they arrived.  At 6:30 PM we all went out to dinner to a small quaint Belgian restaurant for a dinner of mussels and frites (French fries).  By about 9 PM we were done with dinner and headed back to our respective hotels.  We made plans with our friends to meet tomorrow and hopefully go out to dinner again.  They leave Bruges and head back to the U.S. on Sunday, when Gail and I head to Rome for a few days prior to getting on our cruise ship back to Florida.

  As usual, click on any photo to enlarge it