Another protest rally

The Maalse Roadway, one of the most important access or exit roads of Bruges. This evening, quarter past six. Hundreds of people are holding a protest sit-in on this road where, otherwise, at this time, hundreds of cars would be speeding by. The protest is aimed at the violence in our community. Saturday night, at exactly this spot,  skinheads attacked two people who had subsequently to be hospitalized. One of the victims, a coloured person from Paris, is still in a coma. The skinheads had come out of an ill-famed café a bit farther up. The recent numerous acts of senseless violence against foreigners is just too much for all these people here. They will not stand by and remain silent. Our society does not tolerate such behaviour. All levels of government need to take strong measures to prevent such hateful acts.
Is this a coincidence? In the middle of the photo we do recognize the man with the sunglasses : our alderman for Culture, Yves Roose.

This city's second "airbag-festival" is in full swing, in an attempt to restore the accrdeon to its proper glory. I wonder whether this man is aware of the festival, and I presume he is not. Festival or no festival, he is playing here in any event, hoping to earn euro-money. Preferably as fast as possible.

 This, now, is how schools organize a trip to Bruges : they give their students a list of questions about what they will see, along the streets they will be taken through. Nowadays, when you are in the most popular tourist sections, it won't take you more than five minutes before you notice one or more of these groups. The whole pack runs from one spot to the next one, paper and pen in hands.  The questions they have to answer might be, for example, what kind of animals live in the ancient ice-cellar next to the Minne-bridge (bats - as I explained with a previous photo). Or,  what is the slogan used by the city to make its population aware of its responsibility for the dog-poop problem (No dog-poop on the stoop). Seldom does one see such a group remain more than five minutes in any one spot. No time, it all has to go very fast. Modern teaching method? Did they really "see" bruges? I often wonder. The answer is No. Did they have fun? Yes, they probably did.

The church is in the Karthuizerinnen street. At first, this order of nuns lived in a convent in Sint-Andries, barely a few kilometers from here, but outside the city walls. In 1578 the nuns had to abandon their convent and take refuge in Bruges because of the troubles caused by the religious wars. Do take a closer look at the facial expressions on these heads.

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This church, who became a military chapel more than a century ago (in 1893) has, in contrast with most churches who are quite heavily adorned,  a very sober decor.

The church, as seen from the corner of the Oude Burg. On the wall are the lists of the war victims, people of Bruges who were killed.

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For three days, the parents of Jesus had beent rying to find their son. They hadn't known he had remained behind, in the temple.

,Josef and Mary are desperately looking for their son Jesus. Finally, after three days of searching, they find him in the temple with the scribes.

The May Fair. Every morning the city's clean-up teams are quite busy and... the means are equal to the job.

  
The Three Wise Men. In Belgium, we call them "The Three Kings", as you can read here. In previous years there have been different Melchior's. This is the 2004 Melchior.

The Three Wise Men. Since there were three of them, you still have two coming. Here is Balthasar.
The Three Wise Men came from different directions to see the child Jesus. They are bearing the symbols of wisdom of the Western, Eastern and African cultures. Here, you will notice the yin and yang design on the banner. 

The third of the Three Wise Men, Caspar. Caspar, as we can see from the expression on his face, was a bit reluctant to come and see the child Jesus.

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In the Katelijne street, somewhat halfway, is the entrance to two hotels. Left, the "Ibis" and right, the "Novotel". A tourist who made reservations at the hotel "Ibis", after reading that he was going to be lodged in a 15th century convent (oh yes, indeed, that is what the "Ibis" advertises) is in for a rude shock. Honestly, wouldn't you expect something quite different from this late 20th century building?

Tourists expecting to spend the night in an old convent will be lucky, when they enter this inner court of the hotel "Ibis", if they manage to notice anything of the "old" in the actual transformation - please, let's never call it restoration - of what used to be the Alexanian convent. In 1841 the Brothers of Love even built a refuge and hospice for men here, but in 1982, the city fathers had little or no regard for history and had decided that the old had to make way for the new (NOVOTEL).  And only for the sake of contrast was some of the original building integrated in the "Ibis" Novotel..

Were they really happily laughing about it in the eighties, when they shamelessly could demolish historical buildings? Novotel used materials from the small bell-tower of what ised to be the Alexanian convent, to build a bench in its hotel's inner court.  The remainder of the convent was rased but they kep the small tower as a joke. Or were their intentions serious, at the time? Utterly bad taste is all that can be said about it.

... reflects the grace of the city. Even these posts are decorated with the logo of Bruges : the elegant "B" with the small crown.

... tell us we are in Bruges.