On our last full day in Bruges, we headed first for the Folklore Museum; this houses a range of exhibits showing life and the trades of historic Bruges, including the Black Cat Bar – which even had a black cat in it!

After an unusual Aztec chocolate drink with lunch, we visited the Lamp Museum, before finishing our day’s travels at St John’s Hospital.  Below our drinks is a picture Memling’s famous altar-piece, painted for the hospital chapel.

 I may be posting some further pictures but this time of Bruges in the snow!  We were due to leave the hotel early tomorrow morning to travel home, but the French seem unable to cope with the weather and our Eurostar has been cancelled, so we are leaving Bruges later instead.

We began today by visiting the Groeningemuseum, admiring Flemish paintings.  Below is Pentecost depicted by the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits.

From there we had a look round the Church of Our Lady, almost next door.

After lunch we walked to the picturesque area around Begijnhof and then continuing to walk along the canal taking in a couple of windmills and other views.

We are taking a short break in Bruges at the moment.  Over the next few days, I’ll be posting some photos of what we have seen and experienced.

We arrived last night and had a short walk into the centre of town from our hotel, ideally situated on a canal which our room overlooks.  I’ll post some pictures of the hotel and the views from it at some point.

Below is a photo of the Carillon Belfry at night, followed by some more pictures from it today as we climbed the 366 steps up 83 metres to the top for some stunning views.

Next we visited the Basilica of the Holy Blood and venerated the relic.

Finally for today we toured the Choco-Story Museum (including samples!).  Wandering around Bruges at random we came across many picturesque little squares and views.