bicycles of Bruges
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Tag: Wordless Wednesday
Wednesday, 3 January 2007
Tuesday, 2 January 2007
Brugge
Brugge is a very walkable city, yet has many areas of great contrast. And of course, although the buildings are mainly quite old, they are still fully functional and in great condition. The hotel I've been staying in derives from 1470 and has been through a suitably torrid past leading to its recent renovation to modern boutique styling, yet still maintaining most of the old architectural features.
I gather Brugge started to issue coins back in the 9th Century, although almost certainly the original inhabitants go back a few hundred years further when the city would have also been a fortress to provide protectiion from lurking pirate ships.
There was a golden period to around the twelfth century where Brugge had good sea access and fortifications, making it a great staging post and creating a woollen market.
Later, Brugge also opened a Bourse (Stock Exchange) and this created further wealth for the area. Then the city turned towards arts as well, with the famous Flemish School of painting deriving from Brugge as well as William Caxton's first book in English being printed in Brugge.
So, by the 15th century, Philip the Good (the Duke of Burgundy) had set up his court in Brugge attracting a number of artists, bankers, and other prominent personalities from all over Europe.
Later, the river's silting allowed Antwerp to become a preferred port and this saw the start of a decline for Brugge as a key commercial centre.
But this rich history has served well nowadays for a town packed with architectural interest, many small cafes and bars, fine restaurants, artistic views on every street corner and of course the waffles and chocolates for which Belgium is well known.
Monday, 1 January 2007
Happy New Year
A fine sunny start to 2007 here in Bruges! This is a view of the friendly cafe with the very home-made gluhwein near to the hotel, which is in the background just behind the bridge.
And the people in the snapshot do all seem to be enjoying the start of the new year, too.\
Sunday, 31 December 2006
Last evening of 2006
Not a bad view from the room, for the last evening of 2006? The canals of Brugges and a sky later to be lit by the fireworks of Silvestre, which is a co-ordination in much of mainland Europe which ich is still fairly uncommon to we British. So in Brussels, I suppose chocolate and champagne will be on the agenda at some point.
Saturday, 30 December 2006
Eurostar
No prizes for guessing I'm in Bruges, Belgium.
Well, put it another way, I wouldn't have been able to guess this, even when I was being bundled onto the Eurostar from London. This is a great surprise for New Year! So it is a time for meandering around the picturesque lanes of an ancient town, once the largest trading centre in North Western Europe.
Nowadays, its an endearingly pretty location where every corner creates another scenic view, of old buildings, canals, churches, statues and cobbled pathways.
Friday, 29 December 2006
Thursday, 28 December 2006
crank it
A certain amount of black smoke today as I restarted the blog after several days of offline festivities.
Its been a great break, with people, parties and presents and, in my case, a certain amount of driving as well. In fact, at certain points it was challening to figure out how to get people, presents and general luggage into the car together.
Wednesday, 27 December 2006
Saturday, 23 December 2006
Christmas
Enjoy the festive season and be filled with the wonder of new possibilities. There is fun going forward.
Friday, 22 December 2006
Friday Firteen (V36)
A Thursday Thirteen on a Friday? It must be Christmas.
1) I've go the Christmas lights working, although one of the transformers has died. This year's lights have a different style of connector, too, so I've just had to buy a new complete set.
2) This year's bulbs are a different colour also from last year. More white than yellow. Planned obsolescence?
3) Someone gave me a box of chocs at work. They were Green and Black's and we put them in an open area so that everyone could try them. An hour later they had all gone except the cherry ones.
4) I had to (ahem) borrow some selotape (3M, Scotch) from work, because I don't have any. I will replace it, of course.
5) I could not park in Sainsbury's. This is a first. It was full.
6) Fog has disrupted a lot of UK travel today. roads are bad and the airport was struggling.
7) I was working until 02:00 in the morning yesterday and then started again at 07:30. At least I have finished most of the pre-Christmas tasks.
8) I shall try to find some time to play guitar during the break.
9) My work inbox has started to slow down and I've received a few more amusing end of year pictures and thoughts.
10) Its quieter this evening, like a silent night, oops I feel a carol coming on.
11) I have seen four sets of carollers today.
12) Seasonal Greetings
13) Time for a mince pie and a tipple.
Here's a few version of Silent Night to entertain.
Sinead O'Conner
German choir
Christina Aguilera
Trans Siberian Orchestra
Bad Beatles remix with fake vox ouch
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Wednesday, 20 December 2006
OTA Wordless Wednesday
saddest street corner in New York celebrates Christmas
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Tag: Wordless Wednesday
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
replacement bulbs
More from Santa tonight.He seems to be having the same problems as me about getting the Christmas lights working again. I need some B12 bulbs, but they don't seem to make them this year. The set of lights with the computer controlled chaser won't light up at all, let alone chase and I suspect that it is suffereing from a programming error.
Never mind. Here's something festive.
run santa
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