Spent a few days in Belgium with my brother and sister-in-law, visiting from Canada for my daughter's wedding in April. Visited Bruges and Ghent and passed by Sanctuary Wood and Hill 62 - a WW I battlefield near Ypres - before heading back home via Ostend.

Bruges - Brugge to the locals - is a Unesco World Heritage Site which had its heyday for 400 years in the Middle Ages, due to its importance in the cloth trade. It sank to oblivion until the
19th century, when it was "rediscovered" by heritage enthusiasts and it was restored to its former glory of magnificent Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architecture.

In the Middle Ages, it was an important member of the Hanseatic League, a network of trading centres across Europe, it became popular with foreign merchants and with pilgrims, inspired by a supposed
relic of Christ's blood brought back from the Crusades.

Bruges was the site of the world's first stock exchange. Wealth and religion attracted a flourishing artistic community, with painters like Jan van Eyck sponsored by the counts of Flanders and dukes of Burgundy.
This period of refinement and festivities eventually fell into decline as a result of protracted conflicts between England and France and by the early 16th century, Bruges became isolated from the world,
its inhabitants fleeing elsewhere. Nowadays, it is a thriving tourist destination.

Ghent, capital of East Flanders, also grew rich on its cloth industry and on imports such as grain. Like Bruges, it was prized by the counts of Flanders and dukes of Burgundy.
Now twice the size of Bruges, it is a busy city with a port and university, with a wealth of wonderful Flemish architecture. Often overlooked by tourists in favour of it's more famous neighbour,
Ghent has an Opera House, 18 museums, 100 churches and over 400 historical buildings.

We returned home, circuitously, via Ypres, to visit one of the World War l battlefields, then along the coast via Ostend, where we had to sample the traditional Belgian dish of moules-frites (mussels and chips - fries) for lunch,
before heading finally for Dunkirk to board the ferry for Dover.


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