Planning Ahead

Our main errand this morning, after a later start than yesterday, was to walk to the Brugge train station and have our tickets for France printed and ask a few questions. Most people in this area are multilingual (Dutch/Flemish, French, and English) and some also know German or Spanish, so it was easy to get answers to our questions. Our train on Sunday morning leaves at 5:26 a.m., which is going to mean a very early start indeed if we are to be up, dressed, packed, and at the front door by 5 a.m. for our pre-arranged taxi!

We walked back from the train station amidst young and middle-aged people pulling wheeled suitcases, having just arrived by train and now heading for their accommodations, and crowds of mostly elderly folks from a wide range of countries on bus/coach tours or day tours as part of their cruise holidays, bussed in to the Brugge train station parking lot from Zeebrugge, where those huge ships dock.

Phil and I kept stopping to take photos of the many appealing houses here, so different from the architecture we're used to. I was especially captivated by some of the tiniest homes, just one room wide, like the one you see here. The ubiquitous bicycle gives a sense of scale; I cropped a little from each side, and the house has just a dormer window above the door, so it doesn't seem to have a full second floor. I don't know how far back it goes -- probably just two or three rooms deep. I'd love to get inside a few of these homes!

We had another long, delicious lunch at Books and Brunch, my favorite place to eat here, and interesting conversations with Jos, the co-owner. He and his wife close the cafe on weekends, as they are the only staff, as well as the owners, and they want to spend the weekends and evenings with their children.

Our last stop was to see the exhibit of Anglo-Welsh artist Frank Brangwyn's work (born 1867 in Brugge, died 1956 in England) that was on our "must do" list. It's safe to say that we were very impressed by this prolific artist's range of mediums and subject matter, clearly evident even in this small collection.

We had a late supper in our little apartment -- cheese, charcuterie, cherries, yogurt, chocolate, and beer -- and now need to get to bed, so we can get up and out earlier tomorrow, when we plan to head to a new area of the city.