Damme, Flanders, Belgium
Off to Europe again – this is starting to feel like an
annual event. Actually, it is becoming an annual event. And my flight through Reykjavik more or less
repeats what I did three years ago. Except one thing I noticed that was different.
Last time I continued on to the U.K. so I didn’t go through immigration until I
got to Glasgow. This time around I was entering The Schengen Zone in Reykjavik
on my way to Brussels so had to go through the formalities in Iceland.
I’m not sure how I accomplished it, but I feel like I
managed a little bit of sleep on both flights with the help of a
diphenhydramine (Benadryl) pill. Or at least it seemed that way since I was
able to stay up until a rather normal hour after arriving in Belgium. I usually
crash as soon as I get to my accommodations after heading east on a
trans-Atlantic flight.
On my arrival it Brussels I felt at home and ready to start
my Belgian Beercation. Walking through the terminal towards baggage claim
around 11:30 A.M. local time it seemed like everyone was drinking beer. No
stigma associated with day drinking here in Belgium!
Everything went smoothly on my arrival, including my car
rental. Enterprise gave me an upgrade to an SUV, something I have absolutely no
need for this week, but at no extra charge why should I refuse? Traffic was an
unexpected nuisance between Brussels and Bruges, but I guess it’s the norm in a
country as densely populated as Belgium.
With a few hours available in the afternoon before check-in
in Bruges I decide to take in two castles just south of Bruges I targeted as
possibilities.
Romantically moated Kasteel Tillegem is now used as local
government offices but is pretty from the outside. Kasteel Loppem, though, is
open for visits. And while looking impressively medieval and all, they are both
in fact neo-Gothic in style and date to the mid-1800s, an age of renewed interest
in historical styles that coincided with the great wealth produced during
Belgium’s industrialization. Although I quite like the architectural style, Neo-Gothic
décor sometimes seems so exaggerated as to almost be kitsch. But the two were
well worth it for a much-needed castle fix on my arrival in Europe.
First those villages in the countryside and then wandering
around on my first evening in Bruges, I keep hearing that West Flemish dialect
and know I am among my people. It’s like the cultural version of comfort food.
Who knows, maybe it will come back enough that I won’t be too self-conscious to
try to speak a little of it myself.
Despite staying up until a normal bedtime hour of near
midnight and feeling as though I got little if any sleep through the night in
my un-airconditioned top floor room at the hostel, I woke up raring to go…or at
least eager to get out of the hot stuffy room into some fresh air as quickly as
possible.
I started the day with a drive out to the nearby countryside
and the villages of Damme, Lissewege, and Dudzele. Damme is an especially
significant town historically situated along the Zwin Canal that used to
connect Bruges to the sea that also has the ruins of an enormous Romanesque
church, some windmills, and a picturesque market square. At 8:00 in the morning
I had the place to myself before the tour buses with their hordes arrived.
Ditto for Lissewege, another tiny picturesque medieval village with a huge
church. Although virtually pancake flat, the scenery in this part of Belgium
strikes me as especially scenic, one of narrow lanes lines by big trees, old
barns and farmhouses, cattle in the fields like something out of an old Dutch
master painting, farming still on a smaller and less industrial scale than it’s
become in many places in Europe.
2025-05-22