Brugge!

On Saturday I went to Brugge with Ulrike, which was great! Brugge is a nice city, if you can look past all the tourists. Lots of old buildings, lots of restaurants and bars, lots of museums and lots of tourist shops where they think wooden shoes, porcelain and windmills are typically Belgian. The city is generally described as looking medieval, but apart from some of the main monuments, like Our Lady's Church, or many of the municipal buildings, the majority have more of a 16th/17th century look to them. Still though, the fact that pretty much the entire centre is centuries old gives it a very unique appearance, enhanced by the limited amount of cars and the large number of horse-driven coaches driving around. It's only the large number of tourists and modern shops that make it impossible for you to think you're in the past - if you want to get that feeling, I suggest visiting the great beguinage in Leuven in stead - no cars there, relatively few tourists and no shops at all.

Another thing Brugge can learn from Leuven is to put up banners. Perhaps they're present during the summer, but there were none when I visited, and I have to say that the first time I visited Leuven and there were medieval-style banners hanging in the streets and decorating houses on the market square, I was seriously impressed. It adds atmosphere on a grand scale, gives you an extra feel for the old days, even if you're unfamiliar with the flags. There were governmental flags now - many flying halfmast to commemorate the death of Albert I in 1934 - but they simply don't match up to real medieval banners (although the colourful Belgian flags get a lot closer than pretty much any other European flag). Still though, Brugge was great.
I would like to write a bit more, and quite possibly I will do so later, but at the moment I have to run. I'm publishing this now, as I have been putting off making a post for three days in a row and I really want to put something up. Sense of achievement, you know.