Bruges

Bruges smells like the sea, which is strange because it isn't on the coast. But it is a natural fortress surrounded by a large canal-moat. It's a pretty small town; it takes only about half an hour to walk across it, and it's relatively calm and quiet despite being a tourist destination. It has all sorts of modern department stores concealed behind facades to give the whole place an undisrupted, homogenous look.

For such a small palce, it nevertheless contains quite a few churches including two enormous cathedrals, one of which possesses one of the few Michelangelo sculptures that exists outside of Italy. Another church says it holds the blood of Christ as its relic of worship. Bruges also has the creepiest church I've ever been in with a relief of human bones as the altar and their Christ icon as being a lifesize mannequin at rest in a faux crypt that you have to crawl inside to see. It didn't help that hte place was completely silent, with no one else present, and eerily lit by candles.

Bruges also maintains a museum inside a medieval hospital and educates on the medical practices throughout the last millenium. Some of the things they did in attempts to heal far exacerbated the problem and were borderline torture. I wonder what sort of things we do today would illicit the same reaction a few centuries from now. Bruges also has real windmills. Not the power-generating kind but the mill kind that grinds wheat into flour, so that was interesting to see.

Bruges is known for three things: chocolate, waffles, and lace. I had the chance to watch lace weavers and it was crazy. Imagine a small octogenarian weaving a hundred different threads together, each from a separate spool. THe experts can handle about 20 threads on any particular part of the project and manipulate 8-10 in their hands at any given time. They go so fast it looks like they're just throwing the spools together. The closest visual approximate I can think of is it looks like they're washing mahjong tiles.
'
Belgium chocolate is really good, and here it sells at a reasonable 25 eurocents per delectable piece. But the sheer number of chocolate shops makes it seem improbable that they each sell enough to turn a profit so I have no idea how they all exist simultaneously. At least this means that most shops are empty, leaving the customer all the time in the world to pick his assortment. Poring through the selection is actually a little thrilling and it seems they should charge extra for allowing the experience. In that time such weight and gravity is given to such a small and transient thing. This is one box of chocolates where I know exactly what I'm going to get.