Benelux April 2013 -- Bruges Central Square, Quiet Streets and Canals

I hoped to finish off these postings before Thanksgiving.  How about New Year's Day?!

So, where were we?  This is Bruges.  The first few pictures are of the famous bell tower.  We did not climb the 360+ steps to the top on this trip, but I did back in the late 1970's.  It is not a church tower, but rather one of a secular nature attached to a municipal building.  The tower was added in the mid-13th century and rebuilt after a fire in 1280.  It was a symbol of the strength of the Flemish cloth industry.  It's also a major player in the movie, In Bruges.

This is on the back side in a courtyard area.  It's a good place to listen to the bells.

When we first arrived in Bruges, there was a big festival going on in the square, complete with carnival rides.  It was a time of a spring break from school.    

Later in the week, the carnival moved to another part of town, and the square became its normal tourist attraction.  You gotta admit, it is unique.

But not all that exciting to Trout as we hang out before going to dinner.

In the very early days, the canals came all the way into the square and it was an active trading center.  There is a street that feeds into it called Blind Donkey Street.  The tradesmen had to put blinders over their donkey's eyes to get them over the bridges that spanned the canals.

As with so many cities, horse-drawn carriages are a thing to do to see a small section of the town.  These are typically Belgian horses.

Note the black bag hanging behind the horse.  We called them horse diapers.

It was a very easy walk from our apartment to the central square.  These are the kinds of scenes we saw along the way.

 This is an odd picture.  The lilacs are inside the flower shop.  Trout and the buildings are a reflection.

Anybody know if these are pussy willows?  This is in front of a very nice hotel with about 10 steps up to the entrance from the street.  As we passed, there was a couple being dropped off by a taxi.  They had HUGE rolling luggage and seemed perplexed as to how to get it up the stairs.  Lesson for everyone:  if you can't handle your luggage yourself, don't go.  Unless you stay in a VERY swanky place with porters, there is no one to help you with your luggage.

Belgium is known for its lace.  There were lots of places to see it made, and to buy it of course.  I just enjoyed this old lady taking advantage of the possibilities.  We watched her for awhile and then tipped her.

Refreshments are always in order after wandering around.  We stopped in an outside cafe.  This was not Trout's first experience with Belgian beer.  It was mine with sparkling iced tea.

Then it was back on the streets and finding our way.

This is the kind of thing we especially like to see on our trips.  People going about their normal work days outside of the tourist areas.  These guys are pruning the trees for the coming spring, which as you can see had not quite arrived yet.  The best way to get the stuff out is the canal.

As always, we love seeing the buildings up close and personal.

 And some views beg for pictures.

Even close up ones.

This is a typical back street with garages.  I'm sure the places here are very pricey.

I can imagine living in a place like these.

Well, maybe not this school unless it was turned into condos.

This is the advantage of cobblestone streets and sidewalks.  The workers tear up only the part that needs fixing, make the fix and put it all back together in a very short time.

And we always need to find a house address with Trout's race car number.  We hoped to find one with a blue and yellow door, but it was not to be.

Most people go to Bruges on a day trip or at most spend a couple of days.  We stayed a week and still didn't see all we wanted to see.

Europe June 2011 -- Belem Side Trip

We used our passes to make a side trip to Belem.  That's Bethlehem in Portuguese, but it isn't pronounced the way it looks.  It sounds more like "balai" with a very nasal ending.

There were many things to see (and eat) in Belem.  This post deals with a number of them and the next one will concentrate on the major attraction, the monastery.

We took the subway/commuter train, got off in Belem and walked directly to one of the most famous places in Portugal to get the traditional egg custard Pasteis (pastry).  As you can see from the sidewalk, this cafe has been there awhile. 

Roughly translated, this tile sign on the wall says, "Rest on the way to the holy temple on the seashore of the place named for the land where God in the flesh was given to the world", i.e., Bethlehem.

This says that the house (restaurant/cafe) was founded in 1837.  The link will take you to some history about Pasteis de Belem.

Tile is abundant here, but these pieces were particularly protected.  They were also directly in front of the table where we sat.

This was the tile on the wall right next to us.

The tile formed a wainscot on all the walls.  People kept coming in the door to the restaurant part and standing right in front of us looking and waiting for a table.  I started asking them if they spoke English, and if they did, I pointed out that there were lots of tables through the open doorways.

Gradually people started going farther back and finding rooms like this.  The place was enormous.

The kitchen's tile went up higher on the walls.

Many people just line up at the take-out door, get their pastries and eat them outside.

They make thousands of these little egg custards every day.

We had lunch and pasteis for dessert along with some coffee and then started walking.  We went to the monastery first (next posting), then took the bus farther away to see some more famous sites along the Tagus River.

Built in the early 16th centure, the Belem Tower served as both a line of defence and a gateway to Lisbon on the Tagus.

We were not sure what this building is, but it is right where the Tagus goes into the Atlantic.  We guessed that it might have something to do with producing tidal energy, but I couldn't find anything specific about it.

The park along the river is lovely with lots of trees in some places.  We took advantage of those to take an ice cream break.

Trout liked this bi-plane monument.

This is a little bridge over the tracks of the train we were on.

Trout was fascinated by the locations of these gas pumps.

There is a marina to the right of those gas pumps.  The water was clear enough for me to see fish feeding on the algae of its wall.

They were impressive until we got back on the path along the Tagus.  These guys were a little bigger.  They were hanging out by some kind of effluent pipe.  Whatever was coming out definitely attracted them.

This bridge across the Tagus is called the 25th of April Bridge.  It's often compared to the Golden Gate and was built by the American Bridge Company that built the Oakland Bay Bridge.  The name comes from the date the Carnation Revolution started in 1974.  That was a military coup in which no shots were fired and which changed Portugal from a dictatorship to a democracy.  The name comes from the fact that people celebrated the end of the war in the colonies by putting carnations in the guns of the soldiers and on their uniforms.  It was the 70's, you know.

This has gotta be some kind of energy producing thing, right?

Besides the monastery, and the pasteis shop, this has got to be the most popular site in Belem.  Built in 1960, the Discoveries Monument commemorates the 500th anniversary of the the death of Prince Henry the Navigator, but includes references to other Portuguese explorers including Vasco de Gama and Magellan.

The plaza in front of it has more of that wavy cobbleston design. 

Of particular interest to me was this large depiction of Portugues explorations.  There were so many people around and standing on it, I barely got a couple of decent pictures.  I concentrated on the Americas.

Although most paving we saw in Portugal had the large blocks, this area of the park between the monatery and the monument used smaller stones.

After a long day, it was time for food.  I had  Nune's Real Marisqueira on my list as being one of the best seafood restaurants in the Lisbon/Belem area.  It was on my tourist map as right next to the monastery.  We walked and we walked back and we asked directions and I called them and after being totally exhausted and with a very cranky Trout, we hailed a cab.

The driver didn't know where it was either, so I called the restaurant again, gave him my cell phone and they talked him to their door, although he passed it and had to turn around and go back.  It turned out to be only about a block from where we gave up walking the first time before turning back.  And it was a good 6 or more blocks from the monastery.  So if you are looking for this place, don't believe the maps if they show it right next to the monastery.  It's on the same main street, but much farther away.

I won't depend on Fodor's or Frommer's or whatever map it was again, but I'm glad we found it.  The food was excellent, and it was served family style.  Like most Americans, we were there a bit early, but by the time we got our food, the place was full.  It was good we got there early because we didn't have reservations.

They had the typical lobsters in the tank, but I liked the seafood on ice.  The items on the right are a Portuguese delicacy -- barnacles.  They are very expensive.  We didn't have any. 

The crabs were huge.  It wasn't the case with what I got (some small fried fish) or what Trout got (a stew with shrimp), but many of the seafood options on Portuguese menus are priced by how much you get.  The menu will usually give the price for a kilo and you can figure out the cost from that for how much you want.

 We felt a lot better after eating, so we walked back to the train station and began our journey home to our apartment.  It was a typically full sightseeing day and we were pooped.  It was great to come "home" and settle in for the night.