La Belgique: Bruges et Bruxelles.

This past weekend we took an excursion with our program coordinator to Belgium. We stayed in Bruges for two nights, and spent a few hours in Brussels on Sunday before catching the five hour train back to Strasbourg. It was an amazing trip. The weather cleared up nicely all weekend, which was great because we were expecting cold, wet, cloudy conditions. It was still pretty cold, but the sun was shining and everything was beautiful.

Bruges, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the most fully preserved medieval city in Europe. It has amazing buildings and a network of small canals, and gained its wealth as a trading center during the Middle Ages. It has the oldest stock exchange in the world, established in 1271, as well as the French Fry Museum, the Chocolate Museum, and the Diamond Museum. As we found out as well, it has great night life. And an incredible selection of good beer. Hundreds of different kinds, the Belgians really take great pride in their beer. And not to mention the waffles (gaufres in French). So here come some pictures

One of the buildings in the square at the center of Bruges, a two minute walk from our hotel.

Buildings forming another side of the square. The "terraced" style roofs are signature Flemish style. In Belgium, they speak three official languages - French, German, and Flemish. The country is linguistically divided, the north being more Flemish, the south being more French. It's actually a big political issue right now. The question of national identities and such.

Saturday morning around 10:30 most of us took a bike tour of the city. Our guide was very nice and had a good sense of humor. All the bikes were named after Simpsons characters, if that gives you an idea. She was really knowledgeable, and took us on probably the most scenic city route I've ever seen. The city is filled with cobblestone streets, bridges, and canals. This is one of many canal shots I took. It was pretty cold, but the sun made everything worthwhile.

Ducks. Two peas in a pod.

This looks kind of like a mill, right? Built in 2000, it is a replica of the medieval cranes that were used to offload goods from ships coming into Bruges. The city is only about 10 km from the North Sea, after all. So how did this contraption work? They stuck four to five children in each wheel and had them run like hampsters, which raised the goods by means of a pulley system. Also, the building behind it to the right was where Napoleon housed his Portuguese prisoners of war while he made them widen the canal close by. Oh Napoleon.

Windmills! Nearby there were a group of people practicing a type of fencing, except they were using two-handed swords. It was pretty cool.

One of the wider waterways. Lots of boats.

This body of water is called the "Lake of Love" or something close to that. Back during one of the Great Wars (our guide wasn't sure if it was WWI or II) a poor man was in love with a rich woman. The girl's parents weren't too happy about it, as you can imagine. So, when the man was recruited and went to war, within a short time the parents gave their daughter the false news that her love had been killed in combat. Consumed with grief, she came here and threw herself in, drowning herself. When the man came back from the war, he heard what she had done, so he came here and drowned himself as well. It's unknown if the story is true or legend, but its still a good one nonetheless.

Another canal shot, I tried to take some real sunny ones. This one you can see the different architectural influences - the white, rectangular-looking building on the far left is French style, the three buildings to its right are Flemish style, the next one is Gothic...being a major medieval center of commerce, it makes sense that Bruges has all these different cultural elements in its heritage.

A sweet building, except for the crane. The top merchants in the city who controlled the shipping, etc. used to go up to the top of the tower to see the ships come in - "Look, here comes more of my money sailin on in."

The world's oldest stock exchange, founded in 1271 by a rich German family, if I remember correctly. So historic. Pardon the expression, but Wall Street ain't got shit on Bruges. You can take that one all the way to the bank.

Another great building along a canal. See the window more or less in the center, below the tower? Notice that it juts out over the canal? Many buildings in Bruges have similar windows. According to our tour guide, this was because they used to throw all their refuse, human and otherwise, into the canals. And used to drink more or less the same water. And people wonder why the life expectancy in the Middle Ages was so low.

Clogs of many colors, of many countries I should say. Personally I don't know why there is an American flag up there. It's the ugliest clog up there. That's talking strictly colors and patterns, of course. No political undertones. The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of Samuel Griffin, its creator.

A little BC moment. This little outcropping was right along one of the canals. No one likes to be behind bars. Except maybe Kelly? (far left). As my expression suggests, I'm taking it all in stride.

A cool area of the city, where there are a few really old churches, an old hospital, and an abbey of nuns all in close proximity. The abbey was founded during the middle ages by a woman whose name I can't recall. She was a champion of the poor, especially single women living on the fringes of society. Single women can still rent rooms there today. Only two rules: no nighttime visitors, and no children. Our guide said kids were too noisy for the place.

If you click on this picture, you should be able to make out the words "DiamantMuseum" to the left of the flag. I didn't go in, but I saw in the window a huge Swarovski crystal diamond "replica" that would have weighed 20,000 karats if it was a real diamond. The girls on the trip went nuts for this stuff. Diamonds and chocolate, what else could a girl want? Kidding of course. But seriously.

Look b, how did Mittens get all the way to Bruges without anyone knowing? I hope she's only playing with catnip and not some poor mouse.

A yes, beer. A veritable wall of beer, with every kind of Beligan beer represented. At the end was a nice pub where Peter and I enjoyed big pints of beer from Steerbrugge Abbey (spelling?) founded by Saint Arnoldus, the patron saint of brewers. Which is also in Bruges. The trip gave me a whole new appreciation for beer. Not what passes for beer in the US, but real, crafted beer.

In the same complex, in the basement - a beer cellar. This was only one wall of two or three rooms. Filled with beer. It was an experience as close to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as I'll probably ever have. No bro intended.

The belltower in the center square of Bruges. We wanted to climb to the top, but it wasn't worth the asking price. Really fine to look at on its own.

A parting shot of Bruges

After a great Saturday night out, filled with a great dinner and plenty of club/pub hopping, it was off to Brussels on Sunday.

A marketplace. Lots of cool stuff for sale, but I had pretty much run out of my spending money at this point. Got accosted quite a bit by homeless people in this area. Or gypsies, I'm not sure which, people kept calling them gypsies though. Not long after this we saw a big homeless guy, reeking of piss and very drunk, hassling these two gypsy women. He chased them around the square for a while, then they ran away. They were sort of laughing as they got away, but I think things would have been different if he had caught them. He then came over to our group and yelled in my ear. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Above all, though, it was sad.

Not far from the market, we came upon a large, ridiculously ornate square. As you may imagine, there were many tourists like us. I took this turning to my left. I seriously suggest clicking on really all of these pictures, but this one and the one below in particular.

And took this turning to my right. These buildings were owned by the major guilds - tanners, brewers, businesses like that. Trade businesses you could call them. The coolest square I've ever been in hands down.

In the same square, we saw this building. Our guide, Susan (program coordinator)'s daughter who lives in Brussels, informed us that Karl Marx stayed there when he wrote the Communist Manifesto. If you think about it, that means the birth of communism was technically in Belgium. Victor Hugo also stayed here when he was exiled from France in the 1830s (or maybe 1840s?) for supporting insurrections against the government. Really cool.

Tintin, Snowy (Milou) and Captain Haddock (le Capitaine Haddock) painted on the side of a building. Hergé, the creator of the Tintin series, was Belgian. The Belgians love their comics as well as their beer and chocolate.

A statue of a young child taking a piss. Pisser is the verb in French. The statue itself is very famous, I think it has to do with some big fire in Brussels, but I'm not sure. I was lagging behind as I habitually do on walks and I missed Susan's daughter's explanation. I did catch that it's not the original, even though its still really old. The original was stolen centuries ago, and the thief accidentally broke it. His punishment? Life sentence of hard labor.

One of the last things we did were visit Les Galeries, the "19th century equivalent of shopping malls." A lot cooler than any malls I've seen, that's for sure.

View down a sweet market street. It reminded me of some of the streets I saw in Paris.

Finally, a photo of the Belgian king and queen. The Belgians also love their monarchy. They look pretty cool to me. Thankfully, it's not a picture of King Leopold. That might be awkward. Malcolm, maybe this guy went to Gonzaga?

And that was Belgium in a weekend. A really awesome trip, an amazing country, which has only been officially a country since 1830, in case you wanted to know.

Here's some other funny/weird things that happened.
In Bruges on Saturday night, everyone had a great time. A great time. My friend Camilo and I had a pretty late night, which ended unexpectedly at this club ("Cathedraak") where we had been enjoying ourselves immensely. This guy comes up to us, grabs us by the collars, yells "YOU, GET OUT!!!" and pulls/shoves us/knocks us together all the way to the door before pushing us outside. He wasn't even a bouncer or anything, just some really pissed off guy. And we weren't doing anything different from what everyone else there was doing. God knows why we were the targets of such unprovoked aggression. Luckily he was finished with us, because we then watched him go off on some poor other guy outside - knocked him down and kicked him twice in the stomach/chest area. That was the first time anything like that has ever happened to me.

I also lost my Ipod somehow in the course of the trip. It was a tough loss, but oh well it can and eventually will be replaced. To quote Tyler Durden, "The things you own, end up owning you." The worst part was the return train trip - 5 hours without music-zoning out capabilities. Poor Camilo somehow lost his passport and his blackberry.

Also, when we were getting ready to leave Brussels in the train station, we saw another confrontation between homeless/down on their luck people. This guy with a beer can was yelling right up in the face of apparently a woman (so Peter tells me, but it was hard to tell from where we were standing), and pushing her around and generally bearing down on her. That she was female probably explains why no blows were thrown, which is definitely what we were all expecting to happen. It was one of those weird moments where you know something bad is going on, but you and everyone else lingers and watches for a while to see how the spectacle will conclude. Once again, just really sad overall.

A great trip to a great country with a great group of people. And the waffles and french fries and chocolate were delicious.

le paysage français et Mont Sainte-Odile

Last weekend on Saturday we went on an excursion with our fearless program coordinator and other Americans studying abroad - they were from Georgetown and BCA, which is Brethren Colleges of America, with which I'm unfamiliar. Anyway, on tap for the day was 1) a trip to a museum about an hour outside of Strasbourg dedicated to the history of the Alsace region from 1870 through World War II. Basically the museum focused on the German annexation and occupation of the region. 2) A nice lunch at a restaurant, eating Alsacian specialties. 3) a 7 km trek from Struthof, the only concentration camp on French soil, down a mountain to a town called Barr.

It's been said that "life is a road so you drive with care." This was true on our excursion - bumps came up that, though difficult to surmount, didn't take the wheels off the cart so to speak. We found out that due to recent weather, Struthof was closed until the end of february. What day was our excursion? February 27. Oh well. We still got to go to the museum, have a luxurious 2-hour, 3 course lunch, and check out Mont Sainte-Odile, a mountain with a medieval monastery/convent dedicated to the patron saint of Alsace.

First stop, museum. I didn't take any pictures inside, but here's a view from the railing. The weather was beautiful. My first taste of French countryside, I really liked it.


After the museum, we went to lunch, and had a bunch of great food - duck, beef and mushrooms in a stewy sauce with taters, carrots, a cooked and cut up pear, and spaetzle, really goo thick-looking pasta that tastes more or less like pancakes. For dessert, a little rum-raisin ice cream and some kind of rum/sherry cake, thank you very much. We then got on the bus, drove all the way up a switchback mountain rode, with great views, to the road that could take one to Struthoff. Of course, it was covered in snow, with a "route barrée" sign in front, so no dice. We proceeded to drive all the way back down the mountain, and were told that our "promenade" would be cut short by a few kilometers because, well, Struthof was closed. Don't ask me why we even bothered going up the road when the camp was closed, I couldn't tell you.

Anyway, we drove around this great little town Barr for a while, I wish that I could have gotten out and walked around, but I guess we still had some sort of schedule to keep. We drove up another mountain road, and made it to Mont Sainte-Odile. A truly amazing place. It's a monastery/abbey/convent, and it was founded in 700 AD by the daughter of a duke. She had been cured of blindness miraculously, and she became Sainte Odile, the patron saint of Alsace. She watches over the area from her perch atop the mountain, and welcomes pilgrims and soul-searching folk (and plenty of tourists like us) to this day.

The symbol of the monastery. Logo, if you will.

One view of the monastery, which according to our program coordinator is today a convent. This was taken right near the edge of the mountain. On the other side of the walls is a courtyard, a cloister, what have you. A really serene and peaceful place. Sainte Odile is buried here, though unfortunately I didn't get an opportunity to see the grave.



There she is on top of a tower, looking over everything.

Here's another similar view, just to give you an idea of where everything's situated. The people on the left are out on a walkway with a railing. Beyond that railing, it drops like 50, 60 plus feet straight to the slope of an evergreen forest. not deciduous. evergreen.

The ridiculous view from the monastery. You could actually see the spire of the Strasbourg cathedral, which apparently was over 30 km away. One of the best views I've ever seen.


Just a boy without a care in the world

and, on the other side of the monastery, great views of many peaks, all with great German names.

One of my better compositions, I think. That little structure is a kind of chapel/ sanctuary, I'm not sure what to call it. A small space where people go to pray and light candles and such. There were two, and each had crazy mosaics of gold, blue, and many other colors, depicting religious figures and scenes, of course. One of them had an epic mosaic of Saint George slaying the dragon. I wanted to take pictures, but I figure best to respect the sanctity of certain places. The coolest part - this one was right out on the edge of the rocky outcropping on which the monastery stood.
Then, we walked on a path next to the monastery that depicted different stations of the cross. Very cool. And it was great to do some kind of hiking.

My latest in a series of riveting bird photos. Call the Audubon society.

Continuing on up the path. Almost everything was covered with moss, and there was definitely a little snow as well. It all created a very nice alpine/medieval affect.

Survivorman, or Bear Grylls if you prefer, scoutin some territory atop some big pagan rocks.
Another shot taken along the path

Unfortunately, me and the two other kids I was walking with got separated from the group during the hike, and ended up taking a big detour along another path. We thought we were going to hold up everybody else, but it turned out alright. By wandering the wrong way, we ended up missing this pagan wall we were supposed to come across. Nevertheless, I had no regrets. It was a great little adventure, and it was good that I was wearing my hiking boots. The others were wearing nike shox and addidas. They look good, but they don't help much in ice and snow.

A view up through the treetops. A serious alpine, European forest. What really made my day was imagining what it was like 800, 900 years ago when the monastery was one of the only structures around, atop this mountain surrounded by totally wild forest. Pilgrims struggling up to the peak, weary travelers looking for a place to stay...so many untold stories.

So, we finished at the monastery, got on the bus, and headed back to the city. It was a great day. First I got a huge dose of regional history, which was great because I really didn't know that much about it. It was crazy to learn of the trials and tribulations that went along with the continuous Franco-German arguing over the territory. The periods of war were particularly cool. Then I got to eat a great lunch, just fantastic. Then I got to take a very scenic drive, and almost see a concentration camp. Then I got to see a picturesque French village. Then, last but definitely the best, I got to see a mountaintop monastery and wander freely in the surrounding area. It was great being out in the country, it reminded me a bit of home and it made me realize that I need to get my act together and travel to more parts of France, rural France in particular.

A Saturday well spent, indeed.