Rough guide driection bruges and ghent

ROUGHGUIDES Free ebooks ==> www.Ebook777.com Rough Guide DIRECTIONS Bruges & Ghent www.Ebook777.com Free ebooks ==> www.Ebook777.com 51199 US $11.99/ CAN $13.99 781858 286310 I S B N 978-1-85828-631-0 www.Ebook777.com 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd Bruges and Ghent DIR E C T IO N S WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED BY Phil Lee NEW YORK • LONDON • DELHI www.roughguides.com 12/20/07 10:35:26 AM 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd 12/20/07 10:35:33 AM Free ebooks ==> www.Ebook777.com Contents Ideas The big six sights .10 Canalside Bruges 12 Medieval Flemish art 14 Modern Belgian art 16 Churches 18 Museums 20 Canalside hotels .22 Historic hotels 24 Hostels .26 Flemish food 28 Restaurants 30 Belgian beer .32 Bars 34 Shopping in Bruges: food and drink 36 Clothes and fashion 38 Speciality shops in Bruges 40 Festivals 42 Musical Bruges .44 Places Accommodation 139 Bruges 141 Ghent 146 Essentials 151 Arrival 153 Entry requirements 154 Information .155 City transport 155 Performing arts and cinema 157 Festivals and events .158 Directory .160 Chronology 163 Language 167 Travel store 175 Index 183 47 The Markt .49 The Burg 57 South of the Markt 64 The Groeninge Museum 83 North and east of the Markt 90 Damme 103 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd Central Ghent 108 Southern and eastern Ghent 130 CONTENTS Introduction www.Ebook777.com 12/20/07 10:35:33 AM Introduction to INTRODUCTION Bruges and Ghent ĭ In 1896 the novelist and playwright Arnold Bennett complained, “The difference between Bruges and other cities is that in the latter you look about for the picturesque, while in Bruges, assailed on every side by the picturesque, you look curiously for the unpicturesque, and don’t find it easily.” Kwak beer Street life, Flanders 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd ĭ Perhaps so, but for the modern palate, battered by postwar development, Bruges’s blend of antique architectural styles, from tiny brick cottages to gracious Classical mansions, is a welcome relief – and retreat It certainly brings out the romance in many of its visitors – stay here long enough and you can’t help but be amazed by the number of couples wandering its canals hand-in-hand, cheek-to-cheek Neither does it matter much that a fair slice of Bruges is not quite what it seems: many buildings are not the genuine article, but are carefully constructed to resemble their medieval predecessors Bruges has spent time and money preserving its image, rendering almost everything that’s new in various versions of medieval style, and the result is one of Europe’s most beautiful city centres, whose charms are supplemented by a clutch of museums, plus lots of inviting restaurants and bars Neighbouring Ghent boasts its share of handsome medieval buildings too, and also possesses one of the artistic wonders of the medieval world, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece by Jan 12/20/07 10:35:39 AM When to visit INTRODUCTION Bruges and Ghent are all-year destinations, with most attractions and nearly all their bars and restaurants open in winter and summer alike Both cities enjoy a fairly standard temperate climate, with warm, if mild, summers and cold winters, without much snow The warmest months are usually June, July and August (averaging 18°C); the coldest, December and January (averaging 2°C), when short daylight hours and weak sunlight can make the weather seem colder (and wetter) than it actually is Rain is always a possibility, even in summer, which actually has more rainfall than either autumn or winter Warm days in April and May, when the light has the clarity of springtime, are especially appealing In Bruges, however, the advantage of sunnier weather and longer daylight hours in July and August is offset by the excessive number of tourists If you’re planning a short visit, it’s worth noting that almost all of the cities’ museums are closed on Mondays van Eyck Nonetheless, the atmosphere here is markedly different from that in Bruges, and the tourist industry supplements but does not dominate the local economy As a consequence, Ghent preserves the raw and authentic edges that Bruges has tried so hard to iron out , its busy, bustling centre reflecting the to-ings and fro-ings of generations of merchants, weavers, industrialists and workers, as well as accommodating a thriving restaurant and bar scene In medieval times, both Bruges and Ghent prospered as lynchpins of the cloth trade, turning high-quality English wool into clothing that was exported all over the world It was an immensely profitable business and one that made Bruges, in particular, a focus of international trade Through the city’s harbours, Flemish cloth was exchanged for hogs from Denmark, spices from Venice, hides from ĭ Chocolates, Bruges 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd 12/20/07 10:35:46 AM INTRODUCTION Ireland, wax from Russia, gold and silver from Poland and furs from Bulgaria However, despite (or perhaps because of) this lucrative state of affairs, Bruges and Ghent were dogged by war The weavers and merchants of both cities were dependent on the goodwill of the kings of England for their wool supply, but their feudal overlords, the counts of Flanders and their successors the dukes of Burgundy, were vassals of the rival king of France Consequently, whenever France and England were at war – which was often – both cities found themselves in a precarious position The Habsburgs swallowed Flanders – including both Bruges and Ghent – into their empire towards the end of the fifteenth century and the sour relations that existed between the new rulers and the two cities led to their decline Economically and politically marooned, Bruges was especially hard hit and simply withered away, its houses deserted, its canals empty and its money spirited away by the departing merchants Some four centuries later, Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges-la-Morte alerted well-heeled Europeans to the town’s aged, quiet charms, and Bruges attracted its first wave of tourists Many of them – especially the British – settled here and came to play a leading role in preserving the city’s architectural heritage and today Bruges is one of the most popular weekend destinations in Europe Ghent, meanwhile, fared rather better, struggling on as a minor port and trading depot until its fortunes were revived by the development of a cotton spinning industry in the early years of the nineteenth century Within the space of forty years, Ghent was jampacked with factories producing all manner of industrial goods and, although the city has moved on from its industrial base, it remains economically buoyant and is Belgium’s third largest metropolis with a population of around 250,000 ĭ 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd Graslei, Ghent 12/20/07 10:35:49 AM Bruges and Ghent AT A GLANCE INTRODUCTION ĭ The Belfort, Bruges THE MARKT, BRUGES At the centre of Bruges, this handsome cobbled square was long the commercial heart of the city, and is still home to one of the city’s most striking medieval landmarks, the Belfort, whose distinctive lantern tower pierces the city’s skyline SOUTH OF THE MARKT, BRUGES İ The Burg, Bruges THE BURG, BRUGES The city’s second central square, the Burg is flanked by an especially beautiful group of buildings, including the postcardperfect Gothic Stadhuis and the Heilig Bloed Basiliek, which holds the city’s holiest relic, a phial purportedly containing a few drops of blood washed from the body of Christ 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd The streets south of the Markt are home to several of the city’s key sights, from the medieval Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk and St Janshospitaal, through to the whitewashed cottages of the Begijnhof and the Minnewater, the so-called “Lake of Love” THE GROENINGE MUSEUM, BRUGES The superb Groeninge Museum boasts one of the world’s finest collections of early Flemish paintings, including works by Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch 12/20/07 10:36:00 AM Free ebooks ==> www.Ebook777.com INTRODUCTION İ Ghent Train station NORTH AND EAST OF THE MARKT, BRUGES The areas north and east of the centre are home to an especially beguiling collection of handsome streetscapes, with graceful mansions and intimate brick houses draped along a lattice of slender canals, crisscrossed by dinky little stone bridges CENTRAL GHENT Ghent’s ancient centre holds a glorious set of Gothic buildings, including the stirring St Baafskathedraal (also home to the remarkable Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Jan van Eyck), St Niklaaskerk, the medieval guild houses of the Graslei, and a forbidding castle, Het Gravensteen ĭ Graslei, Ghent DAMME A popular day-trip from Bruges, the pretty little village of Damme perches beside a canal 7km to the northeast of the city İ Canal near Damme 00 Bruges Intro 1-8.indd SOUTHERN GHENT Ghent’s two leading art museums – the Museum voor Schone Kunsten and S.M.A.K – are located a couple of kilometres south of the centre, not far from the main train station www.Ebook777.com 12/20/07 10:36:08 AM K^h^ijhdca^cZ mmm$hek]^]k_Z[i$Yec 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