The day was spent visiting museums and wandering within the historic area. Total pleasure as every where you look your eyes fall on something aesthetically pleasing whether it's the swans sitting on the canal banks on their nests which are full of large eggs, or a long row of tall shady green leafy trees, or a row of graceful well proportioned buildings with large bent iron numbers on the facades indicating year built: 1521, 1644, 1716 and some as old as 1200. The old district is criss-crossed with canals and twisty streets that here and there surround cobblestoned, leafy plazas.
We ate lunch at an organic restaurant, Salade Folle: duck salad, quiche fresh-made-to-order, salad with bacon, white asparagus salad, a broth of pureed leeks and chicken stock. I loved it and became irrationally exuberant.
One museum exhibition was funny and weird. Okay, it goes like this, we are standing in a 13th-Century church in Brugge, before us there are two tombs, marble caskets, on whose lids are life-size reclining bronze statues of the casket occupants. In one is the father, Charles the Bold. He died in battle in 1477 in Nancy, France. His corpse, frozen in river ice, face eaten by wolves, head cleaved in half, lances through his body, was kept in Nancy, France as a trophy. Eventually returned to Belgium, it now resides in the solemn marble coffin in that stood before us with a handsome bronze statue of his metal-armored body, helmet at his side, his armor-clad feet resting on a lion. Beside his tomb is the marble coffin of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy. Mary died five years later in a hunting accident. She, too, has a pretty casket and a nice statue, her feet are resting on cute doggies. Her son, Phillip the Handsome, died in Spain twenty years later and was embalmed so his wife, Ann the Mad, could tour Spain with his "handsome" corpse. Before Ann the Mad could parade him around Spain his heart was removed, put in a small and simple lead box with a pretty prayer inscribed on it and placed in his mother's marble casket the one with the nice statue atop. Today his "heart" box is out of his mother's coffin and is in it's own glass display case on his own pedestal next to his mother. This is a very thin slice of the dense history that is typical of every European city.
Late-afternoon, we sought out "belgian waffles" and Belgian "pommes frites". Now we can cross them off our list. They were good, but in the end they were just waffles and just fries.
For dinner we ate in the hotel and, a day after the fact, Roland feted us, in honor of our 25th anniversary, with champagne and a few quotes about relationships. We loved it. Thank you, Roland. Here are the quotes:
"Definition of a spouse: someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you would not have had if you'd stayed single."
"The Japanese have a word for it. It's Judo--the art of conquering by yielding. The Western equivalent of Judo is, "yes, dear."(J.P. McEvoy)
For dinner our table had: lobster salads, white asparagus ravioli, gigot d'agneau, a veal dish and Roland's generous, thoughtful and tasty Mumms Champagne.
We've decided to extend the anniversary day into a month of celebrations. Thanks again, Roland for starting it off in Brugge with the great toasts.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Brugge.
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