Belgium

I am grateful that the school sent out the calendar before year began so I would have the holidays marked down.  I often think of the story told by friends who were in Denmark for the first time and sent their kids to school not knowing it was a day off and having to buy food at the convenient store because they had invited company on a day that was a holiday.  I do make mistakes, but I try to make new ones.

Monday was a floating holiday so there was no school and Tuesday was a day off for Constitution Day.  I can't tell you a thing about it except that the referendum was held 6 December 1978. Wednesday there was school, but A. missed it, and today there was no school for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (don't know anything about this either, but it is nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which may explain why school here does not start before 8 September).  Tomorrow there is school, too, and I am curious how many kids will be there.  Obviously their funding is not based on attendance.

We looked at ticket prices and decided not to venture too far. A. poked around and chose Brugge based on the pictures.  I will post some that we took, but I can tell you I took so many more and finally at some point I stopped taking pictures because it was too much - just too many beautiful scenes.

The view from our room.

The view from a bridge on the edge of town.

One view from the clock tower.

One of the city gates.

A view from the other side of the city gate.

On the main square

Civil registry right next to city hall

Coat of arms

Another bear, this one said to be the first resident of the town.

Just part of the historical museum
(hard to get a better picture with all the Christmas market structures).

A rare wooden building.

At one time there may have been as many as 25 windmills, but only four remain.

There was a fence around the farther windmill and it was designed to look like lace,
which is something the city is know for, along with chocolate.

A couple years ago the new thing was to make chocolate tools.

The view from the second windmill.

It may have been sunny, but the even the statues were cold!