After getting sidetracked posting pictures of the English winter I am now going to return to Bruges.
The day after the lovely sunny day spent in Sint-Trudoabdij Male and Tudor City Park was not quite so sunny. In fact there was a bit of drizzle when we set off in the morning, but not enough to stop the walking tour we had planned. By lunch time the rain had become quite persistent and I decided to cut the tour short before we all got soaked.
The first port of call was the Belfort which dominates the skyline of Bruges:
The belfort (belfry) dates from the 13th century. The final storey (with the clock) was built in the 15th century. A wooden spire one crowned the tower, but was destroyed, first by lightning in 1493, and then by fire in 1741, leaving it with its current truncated look. Look closely and you may observe that the 83m tower leans very slightly to the south-east, by 1.2m at the summit.*
There are 366 steps to the summit, I declined the opportunity because I am not good at heights. Unfortunately for those that did go to the top part of the view was blocked, so they didn’t get the full 360-degree view.
*Insight Guides, Bruges, Smart Guide
AH now that is a pleasant diversion from the snow, It is such a beautiful town
I am very fond of Bruges
Snow in Bruges series coming up, Cherie?
Maybe not this year
Next time Cherie (and I’m sure there will be a next time) you really should climb those steps because there is a grid over the unglazed window openings such that even after your weight-loss series has ended in success there would be absolutely no chance of you squeezing through and falling, so the “heights” issue should be manageable. It was only partially open when we went up too, but the 180 degree view was still magnificent, especially looking down on the market, and the whole structure and clock mechanism is interesting too, and in compensation for the missing 180 degrees we got free entry to the “Great House” (or whatever they call it, I’m working from memory) which was worth a look even for me (who tends to get bored easily with stately homes kind of thing, but I was interested in the guillotine and a rather fancy little cubic sundial I found in there). Bruges is a very nice place to visit (and eat cream and ice cream and syrup and chocolate-lathered waffles).
I would be OK with a grill being round the windows so maybe next time
?The other reason for not going up was I wasn’t sure how good the view would be with the rain.
We went in that museum later although no one got a free ticket for it. I remember the guillotine but I don’t remember seeing the sundial.