In Which I Get Some Use Out Of That Museum Ticket

Today I had a hard time getting out of bed, for no real reason, but once I got moving I got ready quickly and had breakfast. I decided that since today's the last day of my 3-day museum pass, I should get some use out of it. So first off, I went off to try and find the Hospitaalmuseum - Memling in Sint-Jan (that translates to the Hospital Museum - Saint John's Hospital site). It was actually pretty difficult to find. I wandered through some courtyards that I'd seen before, and backtracked, and backtracked again, before finally going around a corner and it was right there. >.>

The museum is both a museum and a preserved former hospital that used to be run by nuns (who only moved out in 2005, apparently, and now live in another convent by the swan pool). So there was a kind of weird mix of hospital-specific artifacts and general art pieces. It seemed to be about one third paintings with religious themes, one third general religious items like reliquaries (so many reliquaries...) which mostly focused on Saint Ursula, and one third items specific to the hospital, like a typical nun's habit on a mannequin and tombstones for various deceased sisters. There were also a couple of other things; including Hieronymus Bosch's depiction of Judgement Day, which obviously figures in the movie. They didn't allow pictures (again...), which sucked, but now I can say I have stood in front of the painting. It wasn't in it's original place, though; it was on loan from another of the Brugge Museums while they were setting up some new exhibit. But still cool.

I also learned about Saint Ursula, whose story I didn't know. Apparently she was a Breton princess, who was supposed to be married to a barbarian prince. She consented to the marriage, but only if he would convert to Christianity and would allow her to make a pilgrimage with 10,000 virgin girls all the way to Rome and back. He agreed, and they set off to Rome. When they got there, they feasted with the Pope, they all received blessings, and he came back with them for the wedding. But on the way they were set upon by Mongol raiders and everyone was killed. One of the reliquaries apparently contained bits of Ursula and the 10,000 virgins, which seemed like a lot of dead people's bits to put in one little jar. There was also a much larger, fancier box reliquary, which had more relics.

The upstairs of the hospital is apparently a rotating modern art gallery, which had an installation exhibit focused on the theme of foundling children- babies who are abandoned by their mothers and (hopefully) found, to be raised in orphanages or foster homes or whatever. It was a very sad exhibit, and very well-done. After I looked around up there, I left the Hospital and went to my next site of the day: The Church of Our Lady of Bruges.

The church entrance is right across the street from the Hospital, so it wasn't hard to find. I wandered in, not really knowing what to expect, and you're kind of immediately funneled towards a small shrine with a statue of the Madonna and Child. It wasn't until I got closer and read the signs that I discovered it's apparently a sculpture by Michelangelo; one of the few outside Italy! I went through and took my pictures, and then went over to the part of the church that's considered a museum. My ticket got me in, after waiting forever for some couple to figure out what they were doing and then waiting for some lady who'd barged ahead of me to quit talking. Once I went through, there were lots of frescoes and carved decorations. They have a little exhibit of tombs that they excavated from beneath the floor of the church; what makes them remarkable are the paintings on the sides, both outside and in. Apparently they had found the tomb and remains of Mary of Burgundy, which was cool. They also had a couple of gorgeous stained glass windows, depicting St. George with the dragon and the Archangel Michael defeating Satan. There was a little side tomb with an interesting tessellated floor in Belgium's colours, and then you could go up to the altar, which showed where they had found the tombs and had newer tombs on top. I wandered around a bit more, and then left. The rest of the church wasn't particularly interesting. I did see a sign that made me laugh, though; they had four translations of it, and it was all pretty and attractive-looking, and I was amused because the French translation (of the exact same text) was at least twice as long as the English version. I love French, but it is not the most simplified of languages.

After the cathedral (which you can actually recognise in most of my pictures because it's the big tower that's covered in scaffolding; they're restoring it), I decided to try and find somewhere for lunch. I wandered through a lot of cool little streets with awesome shops, and finally found a little place that offered a lunch menu for 13,50 Euro; the cheapest I've found all week! It was called Salade Folle, which means "Crazy Salad", or "Crazy Lettuce". I got potage soup again for the entrée, which was decent. But what was awesome was that they gave me little dishes of cheese with my bread; I felt almost like I was back in France again! It was really delicious cheese, too. One was really spicy and the other was smooth and creamy. For my main dish I got Macaroni Carbonara, which is a pasta dish where the sauce is cooked mostly by pouring it over the hot noodles; it's a wonderfully creamy, thick, delicious white sauce. It had bacon pieces, mushrooms, and Parmesan on top, and was absolutely fantastic. I was a little sad because the plate they gave me could have easily fed two, and I couldn't finish it. But I still had the little bit of vanilla ice cream that came as dessert. :P

After lunch, I wandered back towards the hospital and cathedral in search of the Archaeology Museum. It was just around the corner, so I went in. The man in the ticket office gave me a little sheet that had a very simplified history of Bruges in English; after that point, everything written everywhere was in Flemish. It was a kind of cute little museum; had examples and details of the lives of the Flemish up to the modern day and the history of the city. The cool thing was that everything not specifically behind glass was interactive and touchable. I do, however, feel like had I been Flemish and probably about ten years old, I would've been much more enthralled; it was obviously a museum meant for children. Of course, that didn't stop me from playing with the period costumes in the costume room; some things are just always fun, and dress-up is one of them. Also, most of those things fit me anyway. >.>

When I left the Archaeology Museum, I didn't really know what to do with the rest of the day. I had thought about going to visit Our Lady of the Pottery, but I found out that it's all the way across the city, and I didn't really want to walk it, so I went around and did some shopping for souvenirs for family and stuff. I got some chocolate for myself, as well, and came back to relax for the afternoon (the chocolate is to-die-for delicious, btw. Nom nom nom...). Once again, I was still full from lunch by 10pm or so, and so I decided not to worry about dinner. This is getting to be a habit.