Lunch was at Cambrinus. They have 300 brews on the menu and one of the reasons we chose this place. The bar is housed in a historic building, dated 1699. In Belgium, Cambrinus is the King of Beer. You will see his image here in the form of a statue and an etched glass window.
At Cambrinus, they have Westvleteren, a beer that is hard to find because it is not brewed for commercial use and is produced only in small quantities.
Our lunch was yummy and the beer delicious. We were ready to hit the road once again. Our first stop being the Holy Blood Basilica. We wanted to try our luck at seeing the vial that holds the sacred blood.
The vial was housed in a glass case with a very serious nun keeping it under close watch.
If you wanted to see the vial, you would have to stand in a long line and come up one person at a time to catch a glimpse through the glass. Bennett was not happy with this arrangement so I took some pictures from a distance instead.
With Bennett we learned we had to keep moving. We headed to the world's first potato fry museum, Frietmuseum.
This is the first museum in the world dedicated to the history and culture surrounding the salty snack.
Encompassing two floors of the Saaihaile, the oldest building in Bruges, Frietmuseum includes exhibits dedicated to the origin of the potato in Peru and the creation of the specialty food in Belgium - though other countries such as France and Spain have disputed that over the years, taking credit for themselves.
We saw the many varieties of potatoes throughout the world.
Bennett attempted to make us some pommes frites.
We also learned how the french fry was mistakenly labelled as such because during the second world war the Americans who tried them thought they were getting them from French soldiers. The Belgians that were sharing the fries were indeed speaking french but only because that's one of the most spoken languages in Belgium behind Dutch.
Nick makes a nice french fry and Bennett is the cutest potato. The museum was not very big and it didn't take us long to get though everything there is to see. With sometime on our hands we decide to go back to the marketplace square near the Belfry and do a horse drawn tour of Bruges.
Honestly, we were getting tired of all the walking we have been doing.
We got some nice pictures of the city from the carriage.
We also learned some interesting facts about Bruges. These four modern sculptures of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse can be found in a small park just close to the Gruuthuse Museum and the Bonifatius Bridge.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible. The chapter tells of a scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. Jesus Christ opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons forth the four beasts that ride on white, red, black, and pale horses which each symbolize Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, respectively.
The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the four horsemen are to set a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment.
We stopped near the canal to give our hard working horse a break. Bennett and I used the time to greet the swans.
This fountain is used by the coachmen to fill the horse’s drinking buckets. I think if I let him, Bennett would drink out of it too.
It's such a joy having Bennett with us on this amazing adventure. He is really enjoying the horse drawn carriage ride as well.
The second leg of our tour visited the Burg Square.
The main Burg square contains the City Hall and this sculpture, The Lovers, represents all those couples who were married there. It also holds many shops ranging from groceries to chocolate to clothing to furniture.
After the carriage tour we decided to head to our hotel. We were exhausted from doing so much walking the past two days. I really enjoyed our time in Bruges. It is small but gorgeous and more intimate than Brussels.
I was lucky and got some nice pictures of the countryside this time. The weather was much more cooperative and the sun was out.
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