Our apt in Brussels

It's a flat iron building. Only one apt on each floor. 

There's Ed on the orange chair. 

Lots of books. 

Lots of drapes and tall windows. 

Ghent Cathedral. Van Eyck Polyptych.

This is a very complicated story. They are restoring the painting which is significant for many reasons. It was the world's first major oil painting. 

The name of the cathedral is St Bavo. 

They are restoring Adam and Eve at the moment. 

It's a very beautiful church. 

Ghent flower market

So it was only an hour or so to .Ghent from Bruges. It is Sunday and they have this market every Sunday. Also they have a band in a band stand. 

We are drinking wine and eating fish crudités in the flower mArket.  So great. 

Rubens Museum in Antwerp

This fountain marks the entrance to the street to Rubens' house. 

They built a glass kiosk for tickets in front of the building. 

This is part of the house. 

Also this. He had spent 8 yrs in Italy before he came home and designed the addition. Below is his studio which he built. What a fabulous space. 

Bruges

 So you arrive by foot and encounter this statue. 

Then you encounter 4 sculptures Named the "4 horsemen". This is one of them. 

Then we took the boat ride. Get this:  5 families own the boat concession. It is 8€ cash only and 1,000,000 people do it a year. You do the math. 

The swans have been here for 400 years. 

This was in front of a gallery.  Very expensive stuff. 

This is the pulpit in the cathedral. 

This is the altar. 

We climbed to the top of the tower and this is the view. 

The trip to Etretat and Bruges

So everyone told us that as we drove up the coast to Dieppe and Calais we must stop at Etretat to see the white cliffs. It was a miserable day because it was foggy and raining, but here we are at the cliffs. 

This is where we stopped to

Have lunch. There are two mills in the background. 

Dinner on the English Channel.

Tide is coming in. 

The gated garden out our front windows. The gardeners come every morning. 

Snails. We're having fun.