Eliot's Travels

After lunch, we walked back toward the Church of Our Lady and went to visit the Sint Janshospitaal and its Memling Museum. This is one of the oldest preserved hospital buildings in Europe. The hospital was established in the 12th century to provide care for the sick and accomodations for poor travelers. The hopsital has religious carvings, paintings, and medical devices and tools in its display plus old ledgers from the hospital. The most interesting to me was the View of the Wards by Jan Beerblock, which shows the room we were standing in, as it was as a medieval hospital.

The Chapel in the hospital has been restored and houses a few of Hans Memling masterpieces, including the Shrine of St. Ursula, a gilded Gothic style reliquary with panels depicting the medieval legend of St. Ursula and the 11,000 virgins massacred by the Huns in Germany while returning from a pilgimmage to Rome. The boys slept, so we were able to enjoy the audiotour and the masterpieces in the chapel. The museum had these stools so you could take a rest along your tour.


When the boys woke up, we headed home to drop off our stroller at the apartment so we could take a horse carriage ride. It is the thing to do in Brugge - that a canal boat tour. The route took us from the Markt, along Dijver, by a Godshuis (almshouse), and to the Begijnhof . The ride was surprisingly smooth, but our tour guide's accent was so strong it was hard to understand the descriptions. Miles wasn't sure about the ride, but Eliot enjoyed it. Miles liked to make the clip-clop sound with his tongue when he saw horses (though not when we were on the carriage).

posted by Whitney @ 6:24 AM