"In Bruges"

Last weekend I went to Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent) with my Renaissance Art class. We saw a lot of pretty things :)


First we went to Brussels -- this is the Brussels town hall.

Having a nice town hall is the Belgian city's way of showing off how cool it is.

Other buildings/sculpture in the main square.

While we were eating lunch, a bunch of people marched through the street and stopped right by us to play music. A really cute older couple started dancing in the middle of the band!

We were wondering what the cause was for the celebration. Then we realized it was Oktoberfest, hence the German flags.

This really cool dude was making art in the middle of the street with mostly just spray paint and cardboard.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then it was back on the train and off to Bruges!

Bruges is an itty bitty fairytale town that has been completely left behind by the industrial revolution. It was a very prominent trade city in its time but now it's just nice and quaint, with a ton of architectural and otherwise art-related treasures.

The city has a lot of canals. I'm just showing off my photography skills in the rain ;)

This is the dining room in the hostel where we stayed. It was such a relaxing environment!

Bruges town hall.

Right next to the town hall is the Church of the Holy Blood.

This silver case contained the relic of the holy blood, which was basically a test tube with red liquid in it that was thought to be the blood of Jesus Christ.

Even though I don't agree that the red liquid they keep is actually the blood of Christ, I still found the space to be extremely inspiring. This is a church that is still actively in use for worship, and we saw many people coming to venerate the holy blood. Seeing these people who are so devout in their personal beliefs is an amazing experience.

We went to the Church of Our Lady and saw what I was most excited to see...

...Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child" (The Bruges Madonna)! Look at the way the Christ child's left hand is all sprawled out -- Michelangelo was definitely observing how real babies play with their little fingers!



After Bruges, we made a quick day trip to Ghent to see Jan and Hubert van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece." My camera died before we got there (though I'm sure I wouldn't have been allowed to photograph the painting anyway), so I have no pictures in Ghent. But the altarpiece is amazing and definitely worth googling.

I thought I'd show you a picture of my art history professor, Paula, who I absolutely adore.




The only shot I have of her is in profile, but I think you can still make out how adorable she is. I've actually been really missing my Mom recently, so it was nice to have both her and Mama Donna around this weekend. They're such motherly figures!