Bruges, a very old Belgian town.

Ah, Bruges was nice, again the weather was cold and windy, but clear and mostly bright. Roman ships ruins have been found in the harbor and written records go back to the 1300s and buildings still standing go back to the 1400s so this place is getting up there in years. The public place buildings, city hall (below), court, churches, hospitals, alms houses and so on are still standing, some still in use as such. Several are well decorated as would benefit a town trying to make an impression.

There are canals through and around the town. And old bridges such as this over roads and water, connecting houses, buildings and if you ever felt the need to see an old bridge - this is a place to do it. That is a private house to the right.

and the white building is our hotel. We were top floor in a room with sloped ceiling. Looking over this street of cobblestones. Cars sound like trains on the cobblestone when they drive fast and at night they do.

We take tours. We enjoy them. The town back in the day was a major trading and arts center. Bruges was the home of Flemish art and was home to several renown artists, Jan Van Eyck. It still appears to be an arts center as we saw lots of what appeared to be music students carrying instruments and art students doing art work. It definitely is a European tourist destination.

Pretty woman at the city reservoir which is used to control the water level in the canals.

This is a church built for family worship by Anselm Adornes one of the wealthy merchant families of   Bruges. The church was started in 1403 after Anselm and his son went on a 14 month trip to Egypt and Jerusalem. In the basement there is a crypt with a reliquary with a piece of the "One True Cross".  We saw it.  Adornes has quite a story and impact on Bruges going as an emissary to Scotland to see King James and make peace treaties between Flanders and Scotland  representing Charles the Bold.  The Adornes family still owns this church and associated buildings 17 generations later. There is a direct line of descendants - complete chart with portraits and / or photos of most owners.

Charles the Bold, right there in the box under the bronze likeness. In this same church was a marble madonna and child done by Michelangelo in the early 1500s. The marble carving was incredibly beautiful.   

This hospital, now a museum, had some medical exhibits. Hint, if you lived back then, don't get sick or hurt. If you did, don't go to the hospital. Upstairs was an exhibit on the persecution of witches.  These guys here did their Salem witchcraft thing too.

In Sint-Janshospitaal (Saint John's Hospital) there were more reliquaries. I had never seen an actual "relic". Well I have now. Here is St. Someone's partial major bone, yes right here in this silver view box.  St Marie, Marcus, Martin, Martha or Miguel. There it is. Bring you luck? You have choices here on relics.

Inside enclosure of one of the convents, there was a beautiful meadow garden full of daffodils.

Wish I had time and more, but I am getting late on posts. Actually we are in France already and I should be writing about the Somme. Later I will get back to more about Bruges. We enjoyed it.  A great tourist town.