Last Day

We lucked out. The storm happened early in the morning and by taking my umbrella,  I assured good weather.

We visited the most famous church in Brugge, the Church of Our Lady, famous because its spire is the tallest structure in the city and also because it contains the only Michaelangelo sculpture that was taken out of Rome during his lifetime. Some rich guy bought it and brought it here. It's stunning. There's  also a Carvaggio. The church is being renovated so it's hard to get an idea of what the layout actually looks like and part of it, with the Michaelangelo and other art, is a museum you have to buy a ticket for.  It's worth it though; I was especially impressed with the graves from the 14th century they found when digging underneath the church. They're also 

scraping paint to reveal frescoes from that time period.

Underground Graves

Michelangelo sculpture

Church of Our Lady

We also went to the Basilica of Holy Blood on the main square. The structure has a downstairs and upstairs chapel. The downstairs remains much like it was when it was completed in 1157. The upstairs was changed from Romanesque to Gothic style  in the 15th century and renovated in the 19th.

Basilica of the Holy Blood

There must be a chocolate store every 6 feet in this town.  We bought candy from one called Moeder today. They have us a free sample which is good business sense given the competition.  If you look up reviews of the shops here, you'll see that every single one is reviewed by lots of people as the best chocolate ever. We've had chocolate from several places. This is the best. Seriously.

We weren't going to go to the Groeninge Museum but it gets good reviews for the Flemish primitives and horse and buggy rides are 50 euros so we decided art would be better. Plus, Lola refused to go to Airbag which is an international accordion festival. This year's theme is accordion music used in dance and theater.

There is a Bosch in the museum and also some paintings by Van Eyck. As it turns out, the primitives are a group of Flemish artists who perfected paint color by using linseed oil instead of egg. The paintings are beautifully colorful.

There was a special exhibit of the works of the printer Colard Mansion who had been a scribe and then studied printing at the same time Caxton did since he was also living and working in Brugge at the time.The exhibit was more interesting than what we anticipated although much too large. He produced 26 books, mostly in French, illustrated with intricate miniatures.  The two most famous are Metamorphose by Ovid and a book by Boccaccio.  His books were sold all over the world and many brought back for this exhibit. He also popularized the use of prints for home decor. Some of the miniatures from his books were copied and people would buy them cheap, maybe color them in, and hang them on the walls. Art for the masses.

Dinner on the square tonight rates in the top 3 or 4 of the trip. Rabbit cooked the Flemish way with plums and gravy with potatoes and cooked apples on the side. It was hard choosing a dessert but it's Belgium so it had to be chocolate.  Mousse, with whipped cream. The serving could have fed 5 people. Best mousse ever. Also, it never rained and trhe square was beautiful so at last, there was an entire day of good weather.

One last picture of a canal scene

Tomorrow is a travel day that will consist of 2 trains and 2 planes and many hours. And then jet lag.

Great trip despite the weather and the fact we didn't have anywhere to do laundry.