gent ghent bruges brugge

so just got back from Belgium today, sitting in the Beldade/Dix living room again. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone if i don't blog again before then.

so brugge is a beautiful city with like several cathedrals and a castle, as is gent. i spent the last couple days taking pictures of them and of the town from on top of them. when the sun went down i enjoyed the belgian beers and food. actually didn't have any waffles, but did have fried mash potato balls, venison stew, chicken/mushroom/chorizo stew, and i think 6 belgian beers: La Trappe blonde, Westmalle Trippel, Primus, Stella Artois, Bier Miele, Kwak, and the Bierhuis's Huisbier. Seven! Rock on. and oh yeah, all-you-can-eat belgian spare-ribs (i was unprepared and could only eat one rack). and french fries met mayonaisse (yum).

the women in Belgium were also appealing but i sampled far fewer of them. beldade says the dressing nicely is a european thing but i think the belgians are more pristine than the dutch. not a value judgment, i myself look english (most people with whom i spoke assumed i was. to be fair they get a whole lot more english tourists in november than americans).

ok, enough of that nonsense. picture time.

first is another illegal picture i took today at cathedral St. bavo in Gent. I entered a side door so i didn't see the big sign saying no photos. this place was amazing, architecturally, plus it had a bunch of real cool art in in includeing a Reubens.

Next is the outside of that same cathedral. Huge.

Next is the bronze medallist of the Gent cathedrals. And yet its still pretty darn impressive.

After that is a picture of a street in Brugge that i passed on the way from the train station into the town. it turned out to be quite the little medieval-building decorated modern belgian metropolis, but at the time i took the picture i felt like i was the only one there seeing all these towers sticking up behind already-picturesque streets.

the interior of the main cathedral in brugge (Church of our Lady). y, pictures were OK in this one (talking was not). They even have a statue by Michaelangelo (they claim one of the few to have left Italy).

did i mention fries with mayonaisse????
i'm told the Royale with cheese thing is lies, though. they DO know what a Quarter-pounder is.

~Doeg~