During the fabulous week we spent together in September, we went to Liège, chez Darcis and tasted some of his delicious sweet creations.
We also went to Bruges, this gem town in Flanders. Whilst some people think it is too crowded with tourists, we both enjoyed to be two of them.
Bruges is not only packed with tourists on certain days, it is also packed with really old buildings and every house is charming and reflects much of its Hanseatic history. We learned that Bruges also belonged to the Hanseatic league. This was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe.
As my prayers for good weather had been sucessful, we decided to take a little guided boat tour which was big fun in such fine sunshine.(Nothing worse than Bruges in the rain and all tourists with their umbrellas taking twice as much space in the narrow streets).
I never got tired of all the details in the facades or on the roofs.
How might it be inside those houses?
After all these impressions, we went straight to the market place where we had wonderful typical regional food:
Mussels with chips and Gentse Waterzooi. Absolutely delicious!
And in such a nice environment.
After that, we went to Maastricht - more fun, more nice food, more cake and ... a great shopping tour.
Thank you again, dear Honora, for those lovely moments together.
P.S. The picture in the header is of EG's viburnum Bodnantense, flowering now.
Bayou, thank you so much for letting us see what fund you all had exploring Bruges. I have never been there, but have made a note to make sure that any future visit will be made on a day with lots of sunshine! (And, of course, a day with you as a guide!!)
RépondreSupprimerThe architecture is truly remarkable, with the variety of decorative touches all complementing each other so well. The available food also seems to be very attractive.
Finally, please do let your husband know that his viburnum is almost as lovely as his wife. xo
Oh... of course, I meant "fun"
RépondreSupprimerThank you Frances! You will be most welcome to be my guest :-).
RépondreSupprimerI enlarged each of your pictures and it was worth it, first of the garden in Wales. What an extraordinary place. We went to Wales in 1968 after we were married and loved it. Isn’t the language hard to read? I hope we can go back some day. I also visited Bruges, but by myself one time when I stopped over in Brussels on my way to Paris to visit my mom. I think it was out of season as there were hardly any tourists. My knees were good then and I remember walking all over town from early morning to night fall and be enchanted with what I saw. This is another town I would like to revisit. It was nice to see your pretty pictures to help me see lovely Bruges again- you must have had a wonderful time.
RépondreSupprimerhi- I came to thankyou for the kind word you left on my blog.
RépondreSupprimerYes, it is SO very much growing together with our horses, not many people understand it unless they've been in that place. It's so wonderful when you have a liitle victory TOGETHER, you're on a total high for ages- until, that is, you come down to earth with a bump as the same horse reminds you that actually, he's still a horse and he's blimmin well going to do what horses "do"!
I love the photo of Zezette in the mist, she has such a beautiful kind face.
Bruce is 19 next year so he still has a bit of catching-up to reach her grand age!
I hope to catch-up again with your blog now I've found you too, we visited Bruge and Ghent a few years ago and were overwhelmed by the hospitality we were shown, .
Kindest regards Elaine x
For some reason this did not show up in my reading list!
RépondreSupprimerWhat a wonderful day this was - and I am the one to say 'Thank you' from the bottom of my heart. As I stitched my souvenir of Bruges there were many thoughts of you sewn into the sampler. The architecture of Bruges is just so lovely. Like you, I never tired of looking at the windows and the details in the peaks of every roof. It was a day to treasure in the memory banks!
Wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing!
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