Day 3 - Brussels to Bruges

Monday 29^th August – Head to Ghent and on to Bruges

Sunrise 6:52am – Sunset 8:39pm

Weather Forecast:   20c partly sunny

Steps: 16,148       11.14 kl.

It was a leisurely start to the day and we were away by 8:45 on our way the Bruges, via Ghent.  The rain started to fall just as we departed the hotel and there was a steady downpour for a while but by the time we arrived at the Atomium, it had all but stopped. 

 On the way to the Atomium, we passed the Japanese and the Chinese temples, both were acquired from the 1900 Paris World Trade Fair.

Just a photo stop and we were on our way again.

The Atomium was the main pavilion and icon of the World Fair of Brussels (1958), commonly called Expo 58. It symbolised the democratic will to maintain peace among all the nations, faith in progress, both technical and scientific and, finally, an optimistic vision of the future of a modern, new, super-technological world for a better life for mankind.

The peaceful use of atomic energy for scientific purposes embodied these themes particularly  well and, so, that is what determined the shape of the edifice.  At 102 metres high, with its nine interconnected spheres, it represents an elementary iron crystal enlarged 165 billion (thousand million) times. It was dreamed up by the engineer André Waterkeyn (1917-2005). The spheres, though, were fitted out by the architects André and Jean Polak.

We arrived in Ghent around 1030 and started doing a walking tour with Danielle.

Ghent is a port city in northwest Belgium, at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. During the Middle Ages it was a prominent city-state. Today it’s a university town and cultural hub. Its pedestrianized center is known for medieval landmarks such as 12th-century Gravensteen castle

 and the Graslei, 

a row of guildhalls beside the Leie river harbor. and rival to Bruges for its rich treasury of medieval heritage.

St. Nicholas church, in Tourney bluestone, is one of the most beautiful examples of the Scheldt Gothic style. One of its unique elements is that the tower is not above the entrance but above the crossing of the nave and transepts. It functions as a sort of natural lantern as the light shines into the transept from the tower.

We visited St. Bavo's Cathedral.   

Since the spring of 2013, the tower of the Saint Bavo Cathedral has been under scaffolding, undergoing a major overhaul. The tower and four stained glass windows are top of the list. The works will be carried out from top to bottom and the scaffolding will be taken down as soon as a section has been completed. But that will be some time in coming, because the restoration works won’t be over for at least four years.

All that remains of the original Romanesque church is the crypt. St. Bavo’s Cathedral houses an impressive number of art treasures: the baroque high altar in white, black and red flamed marble, 

the rococo pulpit in oak, gilded wood and marble, 

a major work by Rubens, the ‘Calvary Triptych’, attributed to Joos van Wassenhove, alias Justus van Gent, tombs of the Ghent bishops, and much more. However, one work stands out head and shoulders above the rest: the world-famous Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck around 1432. 

After the walk we had time for a leisurely lunch and were back on board the coach by 2:15pm and on our way to Bruges, where we arrived around 3pm

I didn’t do the Horse & Carriage optional, so just walked along the main shopping street as far as the old Market Square, checked out the Christmas Shop and then came back to the hotel for a while and then headed out again at 6:40pm for dinner.

We will be doing a guided walking tour of the town tomorrow morning, so I decided to leave the photo taking of Bruges until then.