Brugge (again)

Yesterday I visited Brugge for the second time in... ooh, a month? This was not something I had been looking forward to, as the last time I went there it was with Ulrike and so there were now a lot of memories lurking there, ready to chase me around.
We were with a group of 24 students, and took the train to Liège just after eight in the morning, so we would arrive in Brugge at eleven. I was pretty tired as I had an awful night with perhaps as few as four hours sleep, due to my state of mind and noisy housemates. I wished John of Bavaria were nearby, as I would tell him they were haidroits and he'd deal with them properly, for example by chucking them off a bridge. Anyway, I had brought a thermosflask with tea, which helped me wake up.
The train from Liège to Brugge was crammed, and so I sat on my own and read in Catch-22. This was no problem for me, as I was less keen on talking as I was on making the trip altogether. I sat in a four-seat space with a German-speaking family consisting of a young girl, who was still learning to read, a father who was constantly handing out sweets, and a giggly mother. It was okay. They had a bit of an accent going on and I wondered if they were Belgo-Germans, but probably not, as they talked about Belgium in a distanced way; they did however have above average familiarity with the country, and I think the man had worked in or nearby Bruxelles for a while. They were going to Oostende to take the ferry to Great Britain.

Brugge was... okay. There were a lot of tourists about and still more coaches than cars traversing the city centre. The old buildings were still standing, and the weather was almost as good as a month ago, except far windier. I went out of my way (literally) to see things I hadn't seen before, and this included walking almost the entire perimetre of the wider city centre. I saw all the city gates there, two towers, and some windmills. Strangely enough no walls were left, only the gates.
I also passed by the two archery guilds in the city, that of Sint Joris (George) and Sint Sebastiaan (guess who?); the former was for the practice of the crossbow/arbalest, the latter for the normal bow. Interestingly enough the guilds had the same practice and name in Maastricht. The buildings for the guilds were, however, disappointing. One was a neo-gothic monstrosity and the other a dull English country house imitation. Both had large grounds for practice.

From the other things I visited, the basilica of the holy blood (brought back by a crusading count to Brugge), an age-old and authentic romanesque church inside the gothic town hall, and the church of our lady leap to mind first of all. The latter had a beautiful exposition about Philip the Fair, grandson of Charles the Bold, which included many rare contemporary items, including primitive pianos and drums. Apart from the exposition items there was also a great collection of "standard" pieces, such as 13th and 14th century decorated coffins and the tombs of Charles the Bold and his daughter Mary (mother of Philip). And Philip's heart was also there (his body having been taken to Spain, where he was king), encased in a tiny metal case.
The tombs of the once duke and duchess of Burgundy were decorated with the coats of arms of all their territories, and even the county of Zutphen was accounted for, as well as Friesland - which was not technically their possession (apart from the cowardly Dokkumers, who had apparently pledged allegiance to the Burgundians at first instigation). But who wants to be lord of Dokkum?

In any case, Brugge² was better than I expected.