Back to the blog at last - Bruges

Bruges

Sometimes it seems a bit silly going back, it's 31/2 weeks since we were in Bruges but I'm going to tell you about it anyway and then Leeds and then London and will hopefully have caught up in the next couple of days. The weather is so wet, grey and cold that I'm feeling disinclined to do much of anything except light the fire and read. 

We got back to London on Friday and on the next Tuesday we were off on another train journey. This time we were on the Eurostar going through the 'chunnel' direct to Brussels where we'd change onto a local train to go the Bruges - 4 hours to Brussels and then 1 hour to Bruges. Very quick and very smooth. 

We seemed to take ages going under the English Channel and I confess that I became a little nervous because it was taking far too long (in my mind anyway) and because it's impossible to see out of the window sometimes I felt like the train wasn't moving at all. Eventually, though, we emerged into daylight and zoomed through the French countryside once again, arriving in Brussels at the exact time that we were scheduled to. 

My overriding impression on Bruges is 'quaint' - narrow, cobblestoned streets, small canals, small spaces and bad coffee. 3 days is probably enough.

This is proving to be a drawn out piece of writing and some more time has passed.

I'd hoped to have watched 'In Bruges' again so I can answer the questions re real life Bruges and the movie version. Alas, I haven't watched it yet, have been doing a lot of socialising instead, so I can't compare but I will watch the movie one of these cold, grey rainy days.

The blasted cough returned to my body while we were in Bruges which unfortunately depleted my energy levels a lot which meant I wasn't out there doing energetic stuff. 

Did the tourist bus ride and the tourist canal boat ride. Interestingly, the only boats allowed on the canals in Bruges are the tourist boats, unlike Venice and Amsterdam, where all kinds of boats are on the canals. 

Bruges sustained no damage during the wars therefore lots of the the buildings have been standing for a very long time, well, in comparison to where I live. Many have dates in the 1600's on them although some were older than that. 

Barry went up the 'Belfry of Bruges', all 366 steps and most of its 83 meters. I was in bed in our hotel when he did this - from what I remember of what he told me - it was really worth doing, the view over the town and countryside was wonderful and the market was in full swing in the town square. Well worth a look too, he said although by the time I got there most of it had been packed up for the day. The belfry stands on one side of the square and began life in the mid 1200s. It has a carillon which was played a few times every day, the sound was really beautiful and gave the town a kind of village feel to it.

  The Belfry

 the view

 

the market in the square

 some of the bells

part of the market at street level

We went to the 'Basilica of the Holy Blood' - it's what one does when in Bruges, apparently, so we did too. Some of the Christian religious 'stuff' to be seen is pretty amazing, as in "really!" The Basilica of the Holy Blood is on one side of the town square opposite the belfry and, amongst the statues, paintings etc that are always in these places is a piece of cloth displayed in a small rock crystal cylinder and on this piece of cloth is some blood from Jesus Christ, apparently. The cylinder sits on a raised platform, on one side of the church, with steps on either end, and is watched over by a church dignitary. People go up the steps on the right hand side, stop in front of the cylinder, bow, pray etc etc and then go down the steps on the other side. All the while watched over by the dignitary.  This person, at the time that we were there, was a lady in priestly kind of robes, not sure what her title would be. And, Yes! We did go up the steps to have a look - couldn't not, really because if I hadn't gone up for a look then I would have always wondered what I would have seen if I did go. So, to save myself from having that in my life I went and had a look. Barry went first while I sat and watched and then up I went and what did I see - a piece of white cloth with pink stain on it, possibly blood, possibly something else - who am I to judge mmmmmm. 

So that was the 'Holy Blood'. It doesn't cost anything to go into the Basilica however a donation is expected to be put into the box beside the cylinder.

There is a small museum in the same building, have to pay to enter this bit, that we wandered into but I only stayed there for a couple of minutes because I suddenly felt that I'd simply had enough of Christian religious paintings, statues and paraphernalia. So I went out into the square and left Barry to look at the stuff.

the little building in the corner is the entrance to the Basilica of the Holy Blood

No photos allowed inside the basilica so that was it.

We also went to The Friet Museum which is about potatoes and chips. Friet is Belgium for hot chips or fries as some people call them. As funny as it sounds, it was actually a very interesting museum and the entry fee also includes a discount for a serving of hot chips from the cafe in the basement. I can tell you that there was a hell-of-a-pile of chips to a serving. Our eyes almost fell out of our heads when we got ours but we set to and cleaned our plates. Delicious!

This little museum has a lot of information re the humble spud and how it has traveled across the world to become entrenched as a food in most countries, how it is grown, all the different varieties and a whole lot more, it is well worth a visit, that's for sure. Hot chips from the chip cart in the square is a thing in Bruges. 

No photos onside the Friet Museum, either, except at this spot ..

... and this one - remember these, Emma?

The museum is in a couple of joined together houses opened up to make one building and so the exhibitions are in lots of small rooms, across two houses, each one on a different aspect of 'the spud' and on the top floor there is an excellent exhibition with photos and videos on cooking food during WW1 in the trenches of Flanders, we both found it hugely interesting and almost unbelievable at how the soldiers managed to cook in such atrocious conditions.

Flanders is near Bruges and is apparently an easy train or bus trip to get there and then onto where the trenches were. There are tours and memorials, exhibitions and memorabilia of the trench warfare and preserved trenches. If I had been feeling more energetic we would have taken a trip there but as things were for me, we didn't get there. Would have been more interesting and relevant to us then the Holy Blood, I think.

I'm just going to put up some more photos instead if writing more - 

the old hospital

shops dedicated to selling lace abound

a lace maker, absolutely fascinating - she moved the bobbins so fast they were a blur and made an interesting clacking sound as they moved against each other. I stood and peered at her working for ages, some times very close to her as I tried to work out exactly hoe it all worked.

These guys were having a very relaxed game of petanque, so relaxed that they didn't bend over to pick up their boules. They had magnetised thingys on the end of string which did away with the need to bemd over. No over doing things here!

and that's it for Bruges.

Cornwall

and here I am back again. It's been a while and as most of you will know, I'm now back in my home in Auckland, New Zealand. And, yep, it's good to be back, mostly. It was simply fabulous to see Thomas again and then everyone else who I've met up with, still some people I haven't seen yet. I have to say it - already I've had enough of the grey rainy days! Still, summer's coming.

Now, I must go back to where I finished off last time - London, Cornwall, London,Bruges, London, Leeds, London, then home. 

We arrived in London, Stansted Airport to be exact. It's so easy - just off the plane and onto the train direct to Liverpool Station and there we were, in the middle of The City, more or less. Usually the 'EU/UK passport holders line is enormous while the 'All others' line consists of one or two people but this time the 'all others' was really long and so it took ages to get to the front and then, the woman checking my passport etc, was more interested in watching the burqa-wearing lady than in me and my passport, but finally I was done and met Barry, who has a British passport and was through quicker than me, and then onto the train we went. We arrived at Emma's later than we thought but they still had dinner waiting for us - such beautiful people. It was great to see them again and to be back in Brixton. 

We had Monday and Tuesday in London and then on Wednesday morning we got the train to Bodmin Parkway in Cornwall.

Barry's Aunty Hazel and Uncle John live in Wadebridge, Cornwall, and every time we've been to London we've talked about going down there but didn't until, finally, Barry went there before he came over to Azpeitia at the end of March and then, finally, I got down to see them this time before heading back to NZ. The last time I saw them I think was in 1992, I'm not 100% sure but some time about then and it was great to finally get down there. 

Another train journey, this time watching the English countryside heading south-west:

 the city of Plymouth!!!

another view of Plymouth - why are there so few trees???

and then there are cabbage trees! not in Plymouth.

For a good chunk of the trip it was raining so the photos aren't any good. The countryside was very green and rolling gently of just simply flat. 

It's about a 31/2 hour train journey and it all went according to the schedule. Hazel and John were there to meet us. It was wonderful to see them, they are warm and friendly and were very happy to have us stay for a couple of days. From the station we drove to their little village of Wadebridge which sits on the edge of the River Camel 8kms from the town of Padstow on the Cornish Coast. 

We stayed with them for 2 nights leaving on Friday on the 16.04 train to Paddington Station, So we had almost 21/2 days with them. 

After we'd had something to eat we had a walk around the village, not that it took a lot of time but  it's always interesting to me to see places with locals who make such walking about so interesting with all their local knowledge.

here they are - Hazel and John in their back garden

In Wadebridge - this is the street leading out of the village to their street.

part od Wadebridge taken from the bridge looking down the Camel River inland.

 On Thursday we went to the Royal Cornish Show and on Friday, before catching the train, we went to Boscastle and then to Bodmin Moor.

The show was fantastic and took me back to the days of walking about the Gisborne A & P Spring Show (Agricultural and Pastoral) only there was nothing 'Royal' about that show although we did wear our new summer dresses. I must say that the Cornish show is about 50 times bigger than the Gisborne show, which is still going, I might add. Interestingly, what they didn't have which the Gisborne show has, is a baking and preserving section. 

We walked around with Hazel and John for a while and then they went off to do 'stuff' and we decided to go and see the animals and what fun we had. First we sat in the sun watching huge bulls being paraded around for judging, making our pick of the winner based on no knowledge what-so-ever. My gosh, there were some enormous bulls there. We also wandered through the big barns where the bulls and cows were resting up, and through a bit of the rare breed barn but there were so many people there we walked in one door and out the next. From there we watched some sheep judging and then it was time to find our way to the designated meeting point to meet up with Hazel and John and then it was time to wander our way to the exit. It was rather cool to just walk around with the locals listening to their 'English accent'.

I couldn't get over how big this show is. It's on for 3 days and around 130,000 people go each year, it was first held in 1793 and covers an enormous area but I don't know exactly how many hectares/acres. It would take the best part of the 3 days to get around it and that's not counting the time spent looking at things.

Anyway, we had a great time - oh yes! we had very delicious Cornish Pasties for lunch and one of the most disgusting coffees I've ever had the displeasure of tasting and then throwing away.

Here's some photos:

 this is the 2014 champion ? breed bull.Yes, his tail is brushed and fluffed up to make it look like this.

a strange owl

A tawny owl - they can swivel their heads 180°

there was a group of antique sideshow thingys

the horse and chooks looked like they'd terrify little children

 and one of these music things 

and then the next day we went to Boscastle on the coast and then to Bodmin Moor. Boscastle is on the Cornish Coast about a 30 minute drive from Wadebridge. It used to be a fishing village but the fishing is rather depleted and it is now mostly reliant on tourism and also, apparently, a lot of people have holiday homes there so that the population of the village dramatically increases in the summer, just like the viiages on the Basque Coast. 

looking from the seaward end of the village. The big building on the left is a hostel.

 

the entrance to the harbour and the village. The only bit of the Cornish Coast that we saw

It was quite a walk up to the top of the hill to see the view, not that this would ordinarily deterred us but time wasn't on our side. I was keen to see 'the moor' and we had a train to catch at 4pm. We had a good walk-about and then lunch and off to Bodmin Moor

On the 16th August 2004 there was a flash flood through the village caused a huge amount of damage, most of the buildings were destroyed totally or partially but happily no one died. This house was almost destroyed and then rebuilt to be almost the same as it had been even replicating the sagging roof! Most of the buildings are eating places and/or accommadation places and most of the people who work here don't live in the village.

and so to 'the moor' - I was very excited to be going to a 'real live moor' having read many, many books featuring English moors so I was finally going to see one -  woo hooo! 

and here it is - Bodmin Moor

my first view - this part was one of the airfields from which planes took off for France in WW2 and there are still remnants of the concrete runways.

this is what's known as the rough part looking towards Rough Tor on e of 2 hills on the moor. The other one is a bit taller, 420 metres, and is called Brown Willy! We didn't see Brown Willy, just wandered around here for a bit

apparently it's unspoilt and there are still many bronze age hut circles on the moor and herds of wild moor ponies

there were quite a few more ponies but these were the closest ones

a very old bridge

and then it was time to head for the station. I really liked the moor, the rugged wild and ancient feel of it and one day I'd love to come back for a close up explore.

Just after we booked our train tickets to Cornwall I thought that it might have been better to hire a car and have an explore of the byways of the English countryside HOWEVER - what does one see as one drives along the byway - hedges - that's what one sees, and occasionally glimpses of what's on the other side of the hedges. Oh, I was very happy that we hadn't hired a car.

finally the station

This time we had to change at Plymouth for the London train and ... train to Plymouth was 10 minutes late which meant that we missed our connection to London and had to wait for 11/2 hours for the one after the next one. The next london train was fully booked, the thing for us to remember is to allow for more than 5 minutes between trains. We were rather late in to London and then Brixton but the lovely ladies in Brixton had our dinner waiting again!! What treasures they are.

Well, I'd hoped that I would have also included Bruges and Leeds in this post but nope, that's not going to happen. I shall get more done tomorrow.