We had a relaxed start to the day again after the latish night last night. We had a good sleep and awoke to drizzly weather. It was clearing as we left to walk much of yesterday's route. This allowed us to take a number of photos of the places we had seen in the evening when we did not have a camera with us.

We went into the Church Of Our Lady and were met by the sound of wonderful choral singing . The voices were so mature that it was a surprise to find it was a youth choir practicing. It looked odd but in a nice way to see them in tee shirts, shorts, sun dresses and jandals. The choirmaster was quietly spoken but had a very clear idea of what he was after. We also saw the Michelangelo in the church, a sculpture of Madonna and Child. It was bought by a wealthy merchant and donated many years ago. It is one of very few sculptures by him out of Italy so the city is very proud of it

We stopped off a one of the few places where lace is still hand made in the city as most is imported cheaply from Taiwan. Most days one of the two elderly lace makers is working on a stool outside the shop but today only a doll was there. We saw heaps of lace everywhere but the most interesting was a map of the city in lace on the side of the canal opposite a museum.

We had an early lunch of waffles with strawberries and coffee. The coffee came with cake and sweets so it was a nice treat. We saw an organ at the side of the road and later we went past to find it in action with an appropriate jovial gentleman but without the monkey!

We arrived at the Main Market Square and it was as impressive as last night. We saw the Belfry but wimped out of climbing the stairs on the basis of the cost and the drizzle as we would not have got a great view to the sea . The main statue is of 2 men who are heroes to the Flemish from a revolt against France. We admired again the Guild halls, the Governors Residence (which was the old Provincial Palace) and also went around the back to look more closely at the 'Car Wash’ (the new Japanese sculpture). I have a lot of sympathy for the locals as it is not really to my taste either. Bert had told us that the Mayor had wanted it removed but had been overruled by someone in Central Government. The Mayor was reflecting local opinion but the central authorities did not want to cause international offence. There were loudspeakers being set up here in front of the Justice Building which can be recognised by the gilded figures including a group of women, one with a mirror which is a sign of prudence (as dropping it would bring such bad luck).

We saw a number of bears as we walked. Bert had said that the legend is that the city was founded by a bear. We also saw signs with swans that are part of a different story . In 1488 Emporer Maximillian was imprisoned in a house on the Market and saw a number of his friends and supporters killed. One had a long neck and a swan as his street sign, and this was hung in the square in the sight of Maximillian. When he regained power he said the city must always have swans (long necks) on the river as penance.

The one statue we could not find again was of the man who invented the decimal comma (or point in NZ). Bert had shown us this on the bike tour but it was not on the city map I had. It does not seem to be considered as important as I think it should be!!

We walked past a diamond museum and would have gone in but we were a bit late to see the diamond polishing display. Bert told us later that diamonds are worth three times as much to the local economy than chocolate. The city also has a chocolate museum (but we had visited the one in Cologne so didn’t go there) and a brewery tour with tasting.

We then decided to do a canal tour . There seemed to be about 5 places with boats all of the same types but in fact Bert said later that they were all different companies. We just went to the first one we saw and had a half hour trip. The captain made his comments in 4 languages including English. The companies all seemed to do the same trip so we often went past boats on the other side of the canal. There are a lot of bridges of various sizes that we went under and also had good views of various houses and churches. Houses on the canal are expensive at about 500,000 euro.

After this we walked back following the GPS. We stopped first at an area with interesting sculptures of the horsemen of the acropolis. They were quite scary. We then spent some time at the smallest bridge in order to look for a cache – but without the hint we were never going to find it although we know where it is now. The delay was worth it though as we watched a series of tour groups and finally had a shot of a boat going under the bridge as we had earlier. The bridge is so small it has stairs on it.

We went by the concert hall where the information centre is but had had such a good overview we didn’t go in. Instead we admired the sculpture in the square. Later we found out its significance. We were first attracted to it because it showed a group on bikes. John had spent a lot time teasing me about bikes so I had to take a photo . Then we found there was also a part with women with birds on their heads – that represented the 4 Flemish towns of Antwerp, Ghent, Kortrijk and Bruges. A third side had a fisherman to represent the importance of the sea and the last of a farmer represented the importance of the land. There were fountains all through the area showing the unifying effect of water. Not that we knew this at the time but Bert told us the story in the evening. Then we went to the river to find a cache and then back to Bert’s.

We hung out our washing then went out with the intention of going to Zeebruges for a fish and chip tea. Fortunately we had also read the guide book Bert and Bea had so we went first to Damme. This was a lovely place about 5 km from Bruges that we discovered was on a cycle way and also had a canal going to it on which a paddleboat ran. We just wandered about enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. The carillon in the belfry was very ‘trilly’ rather than deep and was a lovely sound. We found an interesting sculpture as we walked in from the parking area and later found it was based on an old story of a mischievous man who was a rebel . He is also on the top of the sculpture we had admired in the concert hall area. The sculpture showed a man with mirrors, frogs, rabbits and pelicans.

When we got to Zeebrugge we immediately turned around and left!! It took us longer than we anticipated as we were caught up in traffic that had come off boats, and the road signs when leaving were confusing. We went back to Damme for a nice meal instead, with a very helpful waitress. On the way in we found a field was full of rabbits (80-100) and there were even more when we left. They had no fear of us.

We got back to Bert’s at 9pm to find we had missed meeting one of his sons. He had wondered why we had gone to as odd a place as Zeebrugges and accused his father of giving poor advice. We are happy to admit it was our own poor decision. His other son Peter arrived and did approve of Damme, although it is a place for the posh!!

We all had a drink of bubbles together and a long chat about all sorts of things . Bert answered our questions about the day but we also talked about weather, taxes, sport etc. The rabbits were so tame because it is not legal to shoot them although he said the number we saw was unusual. The top tax rate in Belgium is 55%, houses are about twice the Nelson prices, the weather is usually similar as they are both near to the sea etc. The wind here is more erratic though and kitesurfing is therefore more dangerous. On the other hand we had seen hot air balloons in the air that evening and that is not uncommon. Bert is keen to get the geocaching website as he hopes to be able to find some at Lake Como on their holiday in a couple of weeks.

Bea had not been in contact as she was on a boat to Denmark. She is keen we stay another night but the long drive we have to Bremen means we really can’t as having already one really long drive we know how hard the next day is. It is sad we will miss her but we have been very well looked after in her absence.