Bruges to Brussels to Luxembourg - New Years Eve

Spent the morning walking around Bruges and seeing the few things I had somehow missed over the last few days. I started with a long walk starting at the Beguine to go back to the beautiful church, so quiet and serine on this Monday, New Year's Eve day when clearly the tourists of the weekend had all headed back home and the town and this church in particular were very peaceful as I'm sure it was always intended to be when it was first created. I found this article on line from the July 13, 2008 New York Times and thought parts of it were very interesting about the convent and in particular the church with it's bright white walls and inspiring art. I particularly love the carved wood angles on the alter gate and the painting over the right far back wall of the Virgin Mary surrounded by lots of cheerful angels.
" IF feminism means a desire for independence from patriarchal authority, the beguines — a Roman Catholic laic order that began in the 13th century and branched across northwest Europe — represented, perhaps, the world’s oldest women’s movement.  Unlike sisterhoods that required a life spent apart from society under vows of chastity, these Catholic women looked for holiness outside monastic norms. Although they lived and prayed together within an enclave, partly as a form of mutual protection — some historians believe they banded together after losing their men to the Crusades, which left behind mainly criminals and louts — beguines were not confined to the cloister. Many ministered to the poor and sick outside their walls. Lifelong celibacy was not required either. They could leave the order and marry (but not return)."

"Since 1937 it has been a monastery for a small group of Benedictine nuns. About 25 sisters still live there. (Winston Churchill included them in an affectionate painting he did of the place in 1946.) Ordinarily, I would counsel skipping the little museum, with its slipshod displays of lace-making done by the sisters, along with the re-creation of an early-20th-century kitchen. But the 2 euro entrance fee is one of the few sources of income asked from the crowds that otherwise troop over the stone bridge and through the 18th-century gateway free. I paid up and after a cursory tour headed for the exit." "

Also according to Wikpedia "Elizabeth of Hungary, was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Countess of Thuringia, Germany and a greatly venerated Catholic saint. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. She then became one of the first members of the newly founded Third Order of St. Francis, relinquished her wealth to the poor, and built hospitals, where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity in Germany and elsewhere after her death at the age of 24."

I then went further into the town center and past it toward St. Walburga's Church which I had read about online when researching the other churches I'd visited and it sounded so beautiful. The church, in a more residential part of the city was closed when I got there but here is information on it in case you every visit the city you may want to find it and hopefully it will be accessable. "This church was built between 1619 and 1641 in accordance with the plans of Pieter Huyssens. It was the original baroque church of the convent of the Jesuïtes. When the monastery was stopped in 1773, the Saint-Walburgaparish took over. . Imposant corinthian engaged columns , pilasters and horizontal mouldings make a beautiful lightshow.candle sticks crown the scrolls with volutes. The gable wears a fronton. The patron saint of the Jesuïtes, Saint Franciscus Xaverius, is to be seen in a tabernacle above the doorway. The tower behind should look like the tower of the Carrolus Borromeus in Antwerpen . But because of lack of money, the construction endede with the construction of the blunt tower, that contents the bells. The baroque interieur contains a marble main altar dated from 1643. A part of the communiontrail from 1695 was form the hand of Frans Hendrik Verbruggen . The pulpit from 1667-1669 was of the hand of Arthus Quellin . The organ-case is dated from 1763."

I am glad I took the walk over there though because it gave me an opportunity to see another part of the city which was quiet and virtually tourist free.

Some more walking took me back to City Hall and I stopped in the Basilica of the Most Precious Holy Blood to see the lower chapel that I only found out about after researching it for the blog and it is, as they say online totally opposite to the brightly painted and adorned upper chapel where the relic of the Most Precious Holy Blood is kept.  I got there in the middle of mass and stayed, so beautiful to be there when a service is going on it makes you feel more like a parishioner than a tourist. 'The lower chapel, the Chapel of St Basil, is the only Romanesque church in West Flanders, dating from the first half of the 12th century. It was built by Derrick, Count of Alsace (1128-1168) and dedicated to St Basil the Great to house a relic of the Greek theologian (d.379) brought back from Caesarea during the Crusades. The chapel has a short nave, tiny side aisles, a choir and apse. The doorway connecting the right aisle with the nave has a small sculpted tympanum (12th century) depicting the baptism of St. Basil. The right aisle also contains a polychrome statue (c.1306) of the Madonna and Child, displayed behind glass. Left of the choir is the Chapel of Saint Yves, added in 1504. It shelters the relics of Saint Basil as well as Charles the Good, the Count of Flanders who was assassinated. The black marble altarpiece is from the 16th century."

For breakfast I stopped off at the café mom and I had gone to 6 years ago and which I had photographed yesterday and had a Belgium waffle with fruit (it was breakfast after all.) The young man behind the counter was telling me he wants to move to NYC to open a waffle place. He had seen a television program on a Belgian man who has several food trucks that sell waffles all around the city. I've seen the trucks but never tried the waffles and they were featured on the Food Network at one time as well. I told him he need to come up with something unique if he wants to compete with this guy but he should absolutely follow his dreams and go make it happen. I mean NYC is pretty big, there must be room for more than one waffle master.

I was back at the hotel with plenty of time to get my suitcase, check my email and be on the 1:58pm train to Brussels where I was to change for the train to Luxembourg. Met a nice women and man from Yemen who are visiting the man’s sister who just had a baby and is married a Belgian and living in Brussels . The girl is traveling around German and in Berlin for a few weeks before going home. I asked if they were married and she laughed and he said “she wishes” and she said the same but they’re good friends. They have such nice personalities and so friendly and the man said people in Belgium are too cold, in Yemen people are friendly and talk. I said probably because you get warm weather all the time with lots of sunshine, that would put most people in a good mood. 

 

It all went smoothly and it took just under 5 hours to get to Luxembourg center and my hotel, which I was amazed to find so inexpensively for a holiday weekend was only a 5 minute walk from the beautiful train station. The Golden Tulip Hotel is actually very nice and my room is rather large and in the back so very quiet and they have a large and comfortable lounge on the 2nd floor and free wifi and a full breakfast each morning included. I was afraid when I booked it online that it would be pretty shabby considering the price was so low for New Years Eve but I found out quickly that Luxembourg is not the place to come if you want to party the New Year in which I didn't so I chose well. It's a quiet city but from what I could see tonight it's remarkably beautiful with lots of historic significance. I am looking forward to exploring the next two days and very excited to be in a country I've never been for the New Year. In fact it just turned midnight not long ago here and they had fireworks right over the hotel so I could see them from my window as well as all the terrified birds who were scrambling to find a safe place to perch with all the noise and bright lights soaring above them.

I took a public bus a little bit further into town to a shopping area with lovely restaurants and found a nice French café, Friquets which is in the lobby of the Parc Beaux-Arts Hotel and had a bowl of lentil soup and  freshly sliced prosciutto style ham with bread and butter.  A simple meal but perfect for what I wanted and the atmosphere was relaxing with only a few couples and a group of business women having drinks. And in the center of town a building has a huge bubble maker going off their roof and two little boys as you can see from my pictures were chasing and popping the bubbles, so cute!

I walked back to the hotel on the gorgeous main street which for a small city is amazingly wide with six lanes and on either side of the street magnificent villas and ornate municipal buildings I imagine where once private homes. It was a much shorter walk than I imagined and was back in my hotel in about 10 minutes.

So a very happy New Years since 2013 has already begun here in Europe!!!