BITS & BOBBINS

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When I had finished my 17 thematic posts I found myself still left with a whack of unused photos, some of which might be of interest. So I have included these in this omnibus bits and bobbins post - for the title of which I am indebted to my friend and former colleague, Roger O'Keeffe.

LACE


In all my travels around Brugge this time I only saw the one lady making lace in her doorway. This used to be a more popular activity and I don't know why it is now so reduced. Perhaps there are fewer ladys making lace. Perhaps they don't come out quite so early in the tourist season. Who knows? In any event that's a lot of colour gone out of a walking trip around Brugge.

MARKT

This is nothing special and that's why I've put it in. It's a restaurant in the Markt and is just one of the many delightful sights around Brugge by night.


THE BRITISH BUS

The last time I saw a British bus in Brugge was in 1967/8. There were also helmeted Bobbies and an "English" pub in the centre of the Markt.

Markt 1967/8

This is the bus with Margaret in the foreground.

And this is the pub, the Whitbread Britannia Inn. It was all part of a British Week (actually a fortnight) designed to impress the natives and promote the brand. My current recollection is that the pub was staffed by locals dressed up like they just moored their craft at the Henley Regatta.

These are the bobbies who look the genuine article. Pity it's all now coming unstuck after all that trouble.

I am currently scanning my negatives and doing a series of posts on Brugge from that time.

This time round the bus was not real, just part of the clutter for sale at one of the open air stalls on the Dijver.


SCALLOP SHELL

I mentioned the Camino in the context of St. James's church in Sint-Jakobsstraat. This is just one of the numerous scallop shells embedded in the pavement in that area.


BELL TOWER

You don't have to be at the Belltower to see it. This is true also for many of the churches whose steeples/towers are visible around the place. When you get used to the shape of the individual projectiles they are an invaluable navigation aid on your walkabouts.


NO PISSING

I'm sort of hiding this one in the middle to mitigate any offence. This is a lower floor entrance to what I suspect is the vast and private indoor secure bicycle park beside the station.

I'm sure the sign is necessary. Just looking at this makes me want to go. Imagine passing it at night with a bellyful of beer. Recte: bladder!


TOWN HALL

I'm including the Town Hall in the Burg because it is an impressive building. We students were welcomed here by the mayor when we arrived at the College of Europe in late 1967. By the way, I am now waiting for my retrospective honorary citizenship of the city. I wonder will I be allowed graze my sheep along the Dijver. We'll see.

Another reason for showing you the Town Hall is the niches between the windows. These are populated with a wide variety of characters about whom I know nothing. But I did steal one of them as an avatar for Uncle Larry and his family history stories. It's the guy on the right and it was wonderful to see him again in his natural setting.


CELESTIAL CCTV

I'm sure, in my perambulations around Brugge, that I have ended up captured on CCTV, whether in the local police station or in commercial premises. But I am sure I am also captured on divine disc up above.

The photo above shows the Holy Trinity keeping an eye on me. It's off the wall, so to speak. Everywhere you go in Brugge there are statues on the walls, at the corners, everywhere.

Long live Celestial Closed Circuit Television (CCCTV). I have nothing to hide from the Lord. After all, on these rambles, he is My Shepherd and My Delight, not to mention my bespoke guide around this beautiful city.


BASILICA OF THE HOLY BLOOD

Archduchess Isabelle of Burgundy
and Archduke of Austria Albert VII (in the medallion)

You'll have seen the gilt at the Old Recorder's House. Well, here's more of it outside the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

There is a reliquary in there containing (how many?) drops of Christ's blood. It is said to liquify at regular intervals and once a year it is carried around the town in a massive procession. Taking part are church and civil dignitaries, re-enactors of Christ's life and death, and of the Crusades for which the blood was a grateful present from the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1150. Martin Luther, pray for us.

Thierry of Alsace
with his wife Sibylla of Anjou in the medallion

Count Philip of Alsace, son of Thierry of Alsace

I particularly liked this one where only the sword is gilt. A nice piece of restraint just to show they haven't lost the run of themselves.


SAINT ANTHONY

I just couldn't resist this. St. Anthony and I go a long way back. We have an understanding. As you probably know he helps you find things you lost. However, he holds out while you bid up his services until your purse is empty and then, and only then, does he swing into action. In later life I have come to consider him the patron saint of blackmailers and extortionists. No offence.

He broke my young bank to the extent that, approaching my confirmation bankrupt with all my earlier youthful fortunes having ended up in his collection box, I took his name in lieu of the debt I still owed. Paul Michael Anthony. Well, it does have a ring to it, though his part never gets mentioned these days.

I'm sure he's busy these days pointing out the way to lost ramblers in Brugge. Once you find the statue, that is. And I'm not telling.

DWEER STREET

This one really pulled me up short. Had they named a street after me since I left. What had I done to deserve this. Pól Ó Dweer, immortalised at last. So I immediately resorted to Photoshop to add the explanatory line which accompanies many of the street names but which they clearly haven't got round to doing yet themselves.

Honorary citizenship and a street named after me. Jerzy Lukaszewski eat your heart out.


DELIRIUM TREMENS

Guido Pieter Theodorus Josephus Gezelle was a nineteenth century poet from Brugge, renowned for his use of the Flemish language/dialect. There is a whole square with a statue in his honour near the Dijver. But Guido is not the subject of my comment. The picture you see above is from the menu of the café on the square. It is not often the management oblige by outlining the effects on you of consuming their product.

I was tempted to try the Delirium Tremens but I'm off the booze. Sad.


ALMS HOUSE

There's a number of almshouses around Brugge. This one was near where I was staying. They apparently weren't for the really poor-poor but for the indigent in straitened circumstannces. They were endowed by the nobility or by the city

Our Lady flanked by the coats of arms of F. van (den) Eeckhoudt and his wife. He was the guardian of the house and was responsible for major renovations in the seventeenth century.

TRASH

This is at Jan Van Eyck Square. In 1967/8 protesters had the painter successfully chasing the francophones out of Louvain. Now the location is host to another good cause. You are looking at

"5 tons of plastic waste pulled out of the Pacific Ocean, turned into a 4 story tall whale for the 2018 Bruges Triennial".

"Triennial Bruges 2018: Liquid City has invited international artists and architects to reflect on how flexible, fluid, resilient a historic city like Bruges can be at a time when nothing seems certain.

The water, which literally crosses and surrounds the city and which once made Bruges famous worldwide, becomes a metaphor for Liquid City. In the city centre, fifteen works of art, installations and meeting places are being built up. They form an open and inviting trail that brings people together in unexpected places."

This is the second of the Triennial structures I saw while in Brugge, the other being the houses on stilts in the grounds of Sint-Janshospitaal.

Jan doesn't look at all happy. Well, it is a bit frustrating when you can't turn around to paint a sight like this.


URINOIR

I'm including this because it is beside Sint-Jacobskerk and I have used it. It is entirely in keeping with its environment but I don't know how long it's there.

This young lady had told her friends back home about a urinoir which she remembered being around the Markt but they were sceptical. So on this visit she determined to take a photo to prove her point. We couldn't find the Markt one so I offered to take her photo at this one which was the only one I had seen and of which I had fond memories of relief.


COLONIAL PIONEER

This plaque in Wollestraat caught my eye. It was the oxymoron colonial pioneer, the latter word with patriotic overtones no doubt, that pulled me up short. And this in Belgium? On further investigation it did turn out that he is a controversial figure, at least in modern times.


FALSE TOWER

One of these towers is false. Up to you to figure which.


DELANEY'S PUB

The only Irish pub I saw. Don't think it was there in my day.


HANDS ACROSS THE SEA

I thought to end on a positive note. The city has named a street after Hendrik Brugmans, first Rector of the College of Europe. And here are two of his former students from USA and Canada come to honour his memory.