Belgium – Bruges

3rd / 4th August 2016: Bruges was our final destination of our European Road Trip in the summer of 2016. I had scheduled a one night halt  primarily to break our long journey from Bamberg to Cambridge. Interestingly Bruges was also one of the destinations that we had planned in for our 2014 summer road trip, but there was an awful lot of road works going on and my sat nav was taking me around in circles so I had given up on  the scheduled journey break. However this time it was a night halt so there was no giving it a skip, and boy was I glad that this was on our itinerary. It is stunningly beautiful and if there is one regret that I have, it was that we had only one night and a morning here.

We were staying at Hotel Koffieboontje, 30 seconds of the Market Square. Great location, lying from my bed I could see the shimmering tower of the belfry at night. It bought back memories of Paris, from Easter 2014 when we had similar views of Eiffel Tower from our bedroom window.
It had been a long drive from Bamberg and it was raining all the way. Luckily as we checked into the hotel, the weather eased up and the Sun came out making for a lovely evening. Without wasting any time we managed to catch the last canal cruise. It is a great way to get an overview of Bruges and I kept making mental notes of which bridges I will photograph from which angles after sun down. We had one night so had to make the most of it.
I had a choice between photographing canal side medieval buildings or the market square when they sky is at its best, chose the former given that water always adds another dimension. Some of the images from that night shoot are in the gallery. The Market square is heaving with character and is great for people watching and seeing horse drawn carriages tow starry eyed tourists through the cobbled streets of Bruges. The medieval town centre is almost intact, it escaped major damage in both world wars and as River Zwin had silted by the end of 15th century Bruges never got heavily industrialised. Winding streets by canals with picturesque churches and beautiful buildings makes this a medieval gem.

We had the 4th August morning as well and we decided to give the time to Groeninge Museum, it’s Bruges premier art museum and has a lovely collection of early Flemish and Dutch masters. Jan Van Eyck’s Virgin and Child with Cannon is an absolute masterpiece, unfortunately the Bosch had been temporarily moved to Prado in Madrid as part of the 5th centenary exhibition. There was a good collection of Memling as well. I was captivated by a painting of the town map and how similar everything still is 5 centuries on. I could identify the road on which our hotel was. The children were taken aback by Gerard David’s ‘The Justice of Cambyses’ (1498). A corrupt judge Sisamnes was ordered to be skinned by the Persian Emperor Cambyses, from the distance I had thought it to be a painting depicting medical study/dissection for anatomy lessons, on coming close realised it was something else all together with Sisamnes eyes wide open and people having started the skinning process. Well as a parent one should never let an opportunity to remind children what happens (used to) to naughty people, cause you never know when they will stop believing in Father Christmas:)
So on that cheerful note, there we were right at the end of another fantastic road trip, history, culture, nature, music, art and architecture and some fantastic opportunities for night photography. What more can one ask for.