Today's tour was to one of our most favorite places, the medival city of Bruges, Belgium! If I could go back to any place we have visited, it would be here. This was our 2nd visit but better than the first. When we got to Bruges we picked up a 2nd guide, a nice older man who led us about at a nice pace & stopped to explain what we were seeing instead of just walking quickly & talking all the time as some of the younger ones do. Since we had 2 guides, they split us into 2 groups each of about 20. This is a typical street scene in the "new" part of Bruges. The gables are much like the ones on homes in Amsterdam and there are even more canals.
Many of the street corners had corner statues of Mary and Jesus. Some of them were very beautiful & I wanted to share this one. Most had flowers with them but they don't show in this photo but made bright spots as you walked down the streets.
It is hard to pick what photos to share! This is leaving one of the fantastic squares with civic buildings and churches which had much gilding and decorative statues. You may want to click on this to see how beautiful this little street is with it's arch, & statues. I would love to go back and just spend several days wandering down these little old streets and stopping in the shops & churches!
This is a view from a bridge looking down one of the canals. Very peaceful at the moment.
Another view with a graceful willow tree at the edge of the canal. Shows one of the bridges that cross the canals.