Then I headed off to a church to see a sacred vial of Jesus' blood, or so it is said. More on this later.... But I was way-laid, as I discovered that in the Markt that I had to cross to go to the church, today was market day. This was no "laid back" market like all the others I have seen. No, this is a one-day, everyone who lives in town buys their week's groceries kind of market. So get out of the way! I took a few photos, but needed to get to the church before it closed. Wednesday has limited hours.
After the market and church, I went into a museum to see an exhibit about Charles the Bold from Brugge and some paintings by the French Primitives. No photos were allowed in the museum, but it was amazing. To think that someone had worn that armor, held that sword, wove that tapestry that I saw, over 500 years ago...Mind-boggling. I mean, we're talking of the time of Columbus! How the men ever got into that armor is beyond me! And what happened if they got it all on and then had to go to the WC? (bathroom) :-) But Charles the Bold got his come-uppance for being so vain. The Swiss stole all of his material goods, and he never got it back.
After walking through a museum for an hour and a half, I needed a break. So I took a canal boat trip that lasted about 25 minutes. While I hardly heard or understood a word the captain said, I enjoyed the view tremendously. Most of what I saw, I had actually seen yesterday on my five hour walk through town. But the boat gave me a different perspective.....and a chance to sit down.
After this trip, it was lunchtime, I was hot, THIRSTY, and decided to take a break and go back to my room. On the way home, I did a bit of shopping, bought a sausage from a street vendor (and then felt like throwing up from the grease) then went home and took a "Power Nap". I charged my batteries - mine and the camera - then headed out again. 
By the time I got my second wind, it was almost dinnertime. I wandered down some streets until I saw some other people eating mussels - a common food in Brugge. So I sat down at an outside cafe and ordered a pot of mussels in garlic, and a "white" beer. Like most meals in Brugge, my mussels came with french fries. But did you know that french fries aren't really french? They were created in Belgium. They fry them twice: the first time is to heat the potatoes and the second time is to brown them. They tasted like regular french fries to me! I didn't need the extra calories, so I didn't waste my time on them. But I sure did "polish off" the mussels! Mmmmm.....After dinner, I had two hours to kill until the carillon concert at the Bell Tower at 9:00, so I decided I was going to walk to the windmills on the outskirts of the city since I didn't get to rent a bike today to go see them.
I'd read that it was about a 15 minute walk. From where I was, it was more like 20 minutes. It was a nice walk and worth the time, too. However, I did get a bit "lost" leaving the windmills and ended up in a "privat" neighborhood, so I had to backtrack. Getting back to the center of town took me a bit longer than 20 minutes, but I saw some new streets and new canals.
The carillon concert started out okay, but it was near the same venue of a high school art show/fete and the teenagers were downright obnoxious! They came out of their program into the Bell Tower courtyard, totally oblivious to the fact we were trying to listen to a concert. They talked, yelled, and I believe every single teenager smoked. So eventually the smoke got the best of me, and I decided it was time to call it a night. So, home I went to journal my day in this blog....and so now I will truly call it a night and hope that I can get to sleep with all the music and partying I hear in the street. Funny, I didn't hear it last night!
(You can click on the photos to see them in a larger size. Also, click on the title of this posting to go to my Flickr account for more photos.
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