Friday in Bruges, Belgium

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The first square, about 1 block from our hotel, has the City Hall. We passed it on our guided walking tour of Bruges.

This is our hotel, built around 1280. Fortunately, our room was in the new section!

This is the Church of Our Lady which has the highest brick tower in Europe.

After the walking tour, we took a boat tour of the city throuth the canals.

This dog has a pretty good life, watching all the boats go by!

A great view ot the church.

We were in a shop that sold lace. This gentleman, who said that he was the first man to attend the school to learn lace making, demonstrated the art for us.

In the afternoon, we returned to the Church of Our Lady to see the Modanna and Child by Michelangelo. It is one of only three pieces by Michelangelo that reside outside of Italy. It was stolen by Hitler's men and recovered by the group depicted in the movie Monuments Men.

These tools are really chocolate! We spent a bit of time in this shop buying goodies!

As you can see, Debra, DeeDee and Kim were serious shoppers!

Thursday in Ghent, Belgium

We departed the boat (boohoo) and took a motor coach to Bruges, stopping in Ghent. It was in Ghent that the Ghent Treaty was signed in 1814 ending the 1812 war between the US and Britain. This statue is in honor of the Van Eyck brothers, in the center, who painted the Ghent Alterpieces.
 

This is Bavo Cathedral where the Ghent Alterpieces reside. All of the panels were stolen by Hitler's army. All but one were recovered. We were not allowed to take pictures of them.

We were allowed to take pictures of the other areas. This is one of many gorgeous areas of the cathedral.

Ghent has many picturesque areas.

This is the oldest building in the city. It was built in this leaning position on purpose!  Our guide says it was built this way because they lifted goods from the top with a hoist from the streets.  The little house to the right is the narrowest house in Ghent.  

This is the 800 year old Castle of the Counts. From here, the Counts of Flanders ruled.

We walked through the old meat market. We don't know if they're real or not.  One of our group asked and they said it was real.  We couldn't get one through customs anyway.  The ceiling looks like an upside-down ship.

The folks in Ghent say if you drink too many of these it will have the inverse effect of the elephants memory.  You may even see flying pink elephants.

Wednesday in Antwerp, Belgium

Our last gathering with Kevin for a walking tour of Antwerp. When we get to Bruges, we will have Serge as our guide.

These are wooden escalators that were built around 1932. They lead to a pedestrian and bicycle tunnel that goes under the river to the other bank.

When the city imposed a tax on street lighting (candles), he citizens started putting up these statues with candles, and argued that the city shouldn't tax candles for Mary! They city said OK.

This is the Town Hall built in 1561, which fly 87 flags, mostly of the countries in the European Union.

These are called the gild houses with the gold figures on top. People with a craft were the only ones allowed to live here. Crafts such as carpenter etc.

The Cathedral of Our Lady, a Gothic style cathedral, was built from 1351 to 1521. It burned many times and was restored with the inside in the Baroque style. There was a fee to go inside, and since we've seen so many churches, we passed on this one!

This is a statue of the painter Rubens who moved here from Germany at the age of ten and purportedly painted over 3,000 paintings. It is said that his students painted many portraits with the exception of the faces and hands which Rubens would paint and then profit from.
 

These are Belgium fries. What we call french fries were invented in Belgium. During WWII, soldiers loved the fries and since the people spoke French here, they thought they were in France. Therefore, the soldiers named them French Fries! They are very good. You get your choice of about 15 sauces (if you can figure out what they are)!

Tuesday in Kinderdijk and Willemstad, The Netherlands

This morning we didn't have a city walk because we visited 19 famous windmills that were built along the river in Kinderdijk in approximately 1740. We are six feet below sea level.  These canals drain the city and these windmills pump the water from these canals into huge holding basins which you can't see in this photo.  The basins are then released into the rivers outside the levees when the sea tides are low.(gravity flow through huge gates)

This is the oldest of the windmills whose style is older than that of the others. It is supported by Grand Circle Foundation, created by the company we traveled with.

We were able to tour one of the windmills. Close quarters, especially for the families who live in them!

We are standing in front of the windmill we toured. The blades on these mills are steel but the canvass is put down or rolled up like a "sail" to make it turn.

Big shoes to fill!.

Then we cruised to Willemstad, where we boarded another bus for the Delta Works, a restoration project known worldwide for its hydro-engineering, begun after flooding devastated Holland in 1953. What was once a collection of islands are now connected and protected by a series of dams, dikes and bridges.

We are walking under the roadway which is used as a museum explaining how the Delta Works were built.

We were then able to walk along the outside of the works, along the underside of the road. This picture is looking to the North Sea.

Monday in Nijmegen, The Netherlands

 We began the day with a walking tour of the city. Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands; about 2,000 years old. This is a part of the second city wall. When the citizens were outgrowing the first wall, a second wall was built further out.  The Netherlands are basically flat and some parts below sea level however this city of Nijmegen is the highest point in the Netherlands.  No levees needed to protect the inner city.

These plaques listed the names, ages and places of death of the Jews from the city who died during WWII.  Most of them died at Auschwitz.

This building is in the main square and was the cloth market. The Netherlands is famous for its cloth making, especially adding color to the plain fabric when color was not really happening.  We saw an old indigo dying building.

This is St. Stevens Church, built in the 13th century. It is now an Ecumenical church.

This building is typical of Dutch Renaissance. It was originally a Jesuit school,

Kim looks really, really happy. Notice the green leaf on the building behind him? This is a coffee shop which sells marijuana, legal in The Netherlands!  The coffee shops are the only legal facility allowed to sell the weed.

This herring fish was cleaned by the vendor for one of our fellow passengers. That's what you call sushi! (Kim said he would eat it, too!)

Another one in our group taking down a raw herring just gutted and cleaned!  This is Bob from Oklahoma.

DeeDee tasting the raw fish too!

We crowded our whole group into this local pub for some beer tasting.  Dutch beer ain't bad!

Last stop on the city taste and see tour was one of program directors giving us class in the coffee shop on how to buy and roll hash and weed the way the locals do it legally!  Of coarse the tasting was optional.!!!

Sunday in Bonn, Germany

Today we visited Bonn, our last stop in Germany. Bonn was founded by the Romans, and was the provisional capital of West Germany until reunification in 1990. The cities of Bonn and Beuel,agreed to build a new bridge, called the Kennedy Bridge, together. Beuel backed down when it came to paying their share. So, Bonn built the bridge itself. This is a statue on the Bonn side of the bridge mooning them!

This was one of the residences belonging to Archbishop Clemens August, the powerful Archbishop of Cologne. It is now part of the university of Bonn.  Some of the folks graduating from here are the guy responsible for the "hertz".  Don't remember his first name but his last name was "Hertz".  Another famous person was eventually Pope Benidict.  There are 8 Nobel prize winners from this university.

ABC; another bloody church!

These heads were moved to the outside of this church recently. They represent two Germans who fought for Rome until they refused to fight against other Christians. They were then beheaded,  I don't recall their names but I thought he said they were Boudreaux and Thibodeuax!

This is the City Hall. Many famous people have stood at the top of those steps including John F. Kennedy.

Bonn is the birthplace of Ludwig Beethoven. This is a statue of him.  He went deaf at around 30 years old and continued to write music that still thrives today.  He wrote an opera after being deaf that was 72 minutes long.  There is a Beethoven museum around the corner from here. There is also a church around the corner from here where Beethoven played on Sundays.

Wayne and I (Debra) visited Augustusburg Palace in the town of Bruhl. It was built in the 18th century for Clemens August, the Archbishop of Cologne.  He died before its completion.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Palace. This picture is looking at the gardens from the back patio of the Palace.

This is looking from the gardens to the back of the Palace.

Of course, there are ponds. This is the largest one.

DeeDee and Kim went to Cologne up the river about 15 miles from Bonn and visited the Cologne Cathedral.  This building is huge.  

This is the alter in the Cologne Cathedral.

This is the back side of the Cologne Cathedral shot from the River Rhine as we travel on to the Netherlands.

The sun setting on the Rhine as we move toward the Netherlands.