May 5 - I’m behind again!

It’s Friday, May 5th and I’m sitting on the ship in Dover.  It’s turn around day which means that lots of people got off and a new bunch will board soon.  My friend Claudia left as did some of my British friends, including the only other dancers.  I’ll have to carry on alone.

Now it’s time to play catch-up.  May 3rd was a sea day and I honestly don’t know where it went.  We played trivia, of course, at noon and came in second. The team that won actually cheated which our team and all the others caught on to, but that’s the way it went. As for the rest of the day I chatted with friends and went from meal to meal and bar to show to bar.

Yesterday, May 4th, we went to Bruges in Belgium. It was a marvelous day!  It was sunny and warm (in fact I was over-dressed). Claudia and I took the bus tour offered by the ship which just dropped us off and then picked us up later in the afternoon.  We walked through this lovely town, stopping to take lots of pictures and shopping. 

Bruges is the capital, and largest city, of the province of West Flanders in Belgium. Not to be repetitive but the area has been inhabited since the Bronze and Iron Ages and the Romans of course settled here.  In the Middle Ages it became an important trade center because it was at the crossroads of the northern trade route with the Hanseatic League states in the Baltic area and the southern trade routes with France and the Mediterranean states.  In the 16th century the city began to decline as the principal waterway began to silt up and it was not until the 19th century that it once again began to thrive, this time as a tourist destination for wealthy British and French travelers because of the charm of the area.  During both world wars the city was spared destruction so many of the structures are original.

Those are some of the many swans around

This was such a nice looking Harley we had to take a photo. It positively sparkled.

Some gigantic frites in a shop that only sold frites

I got a real kick out of this sign.

Bruges is known now for three things (I’m not sure in what order): lace, chocolates and beer.  Every other store we passed sold chocolates and various other sweets like marzipan and nougat. The reason I couldn’t shed some of my outer layers was because the bag I was carrying was full of chocolates and candies that I bought.  (I know, I know, I don’t really need them.  Some aren’t for me, but a few are because how often does one get the chance to buy real Belgian chocolates in Belgium? And, it was my birthday so I felt I could indulge.)

This is the door post in one of the shops I bought chocolates in. Can you guess what the parrot is made of?

A shop that sold nothing but hundreds of different belgian beers

One of the charming canals

The decoration outside a Belgian waffle shop. How can one not love this beautiful place?

It was a glorious day. There is a nice lake with lots of swans doing their stately swimming around.  There are a few canals with boats taking sightseers,  a Flemish version of Venice.  We were specifically headed to the Church of Our Lady in the center of the town.  It’s a beautiful church which happens to have the first Michelangelo sculpture housed outside of Italy.  This sculpture of the Virgin Mary and Child was commissioned by a wealthy merchant in the early 16th century.  It has been in Bruges ever since except for two times which I find very interesting.  In 1794 during the French Revolution when parts of what is now Belgium were taken by the Revolutionaries it was taken to Paris.  It was returned to Bruges following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815.  In 1944 as the Germans retreated the sculpture was wrapped in mattresses and smuggled in a Red Cross truck to a salt mine in Austria. It was returned after the war ended due to the efforts of the Monuments Men, the Allied group of soldiers tasked with finding fine arts objects which had been stolen by the Nazis to return them to their rightful places and to prevent their destruction. The sculpture is in a side chapel in which members of the merchant family are supposedly buried.  

The nave of the Church of Our Lady

The Michelangelo sculpture

A very ornately carved pulpit

This one's for you, Katie. This is a temporary organ while the actual one is repaired. 

After visiting the church we went to a little restaurant across the street and sat outside for a wonderful lunch.  We split an order of the biggest white asparagus I’ve ever seen and which had been cooked to perfection with butter, white wine and hard-cooked eggs and  a plate homemade pappardelle with shaved black truffles and mushrooms. We drank something the area is famous for, a fruit beer.  I had a strawberry one and Claudia had a cherry one.  It was a perfect meal enhanced by the location as  we sat and watched the people in the square.

I finally posted food pictures. These dishes were so good!

After lunch we headed back toward the meeting point for the bus. Along the way we encountered some friends from the ship and they sang happy birthday to me. Before they were finished everyone on the street was singing along. What a treat.  Back on the ship we had our final trivia round. We trounced everybody and finished with a stunning 6 out of 8 wins. What a team we had!  Only four of us are on for the next segment, but we had some folks from the team next to us ask if they could join.  We like them (they aren’t from the cheating team) so we’ll have another good group.  I don’t really care if we ever win, it’s more important to me to have fun playing.

In the evening I had dinner with the British couple, the British father and daughter and Claudia at the TK Grill.  All of them have deserted me for the next cruise, but we had a great time last night. The staff brought out a beautiful cake and they sang happy birthday again.  We all went down to the Club for a while.  We danced a little but then it was time to say goodbye. That’s always sad, but I feel certain we’ll meet again.

The towel cake my cabin attendants created for me

Anyway, that’s what’s been happening here.  Sorry to be so long-winded but I had to catch up.  The sun is shining here in Dover but it’s very cold out on deck.  Tomorrow we’ll be in Cherbourg again and I’m probably just going to hang out and maybe find someplace in town to have a French lunch. On the ship they have some kind of event planned for those who want to watch the coronation.

This uploaded to the wrong spot. I thought it was a beautiful tomb. She was Mary of Burgundy, a duchess of this place and the daughter of Charles the Bold. I love the names given to the various rulers back then like Pippin the Short or Harold the Bald.