Yesterday my program took a large group to Bruges. To my delight I saw two weddings! Naturally I creeped and took my fair share of photos. Here are the brides!
I love the dress on the right! The bow in the back is adorable! I do not know about having the dress in this weird color though. But I guess I am a traditionalist and believe in the iconic white dress. But all the same this dress is lovely! And the picture on the left of the bride and groom walking together was too adorable not to put up!
Burges is a romantic city. So here is a little more about this medieval town regarding love. Above is the Lake of Love. There are many myths as to where the lake got its name, but the tour guide only told us one. It is a classic story. Boy meets girl. The two fall in love. And fate pulls them apart (aka parents). The girl can not bear to be away from her love and her tears make the lake that we see today. A symbol of lovers pain at being apart. 
Not an especially flattering picture,but I had to include it. This is inside the Church of Our Lady. Featured behind me is a statue by Michelangelo called Madonna and Child. This is the only piece of art by Michelangelo in all of Belgium, and I think it is rare to find really any piece of his art outside of Italy. While the statue was not originally meant for Bruges, here is where it came to reside for hundreds of years. The statue has only been moved twice, when it was taken. The first was by Napoleon, but was returned after the Battle of Waterloo. The second time was during WWII by the Nazis. However, it was later recovered and returned to Bruges undamaged. It is amazing what that one statue has been through and that it has survived!
Bruges is also referred to as the Venice of Belgium because of its canals. Therefore, of course we all went on a boat ride around the town. While not as romantic as Venice's gondola rides it was great to see the city by water. Here is a picture of Hind, Katie, and Iris while we traveled through the city. It is amazing how multilingual people are here in Europe. Our guide changed between Spanish, English, French and Dutch. There may have been a few other languages in there, but I did not recognize them. And the thing is it is common for people to speak at least 3 languages!! Wow!
As we were exploring the city I noticed a Dali exhibit. For some reason I felt the need to go see it even though I know very little about art and even less about Dali, besides that he is famous for the melting clocks. But oh my, it was an experience!! I was fascinated how in certain picture there was little more than a red dot to represent someone and yet I knew who he was portraying (in this case it was Mary, mother of God). How do artist do this? They paint abstractly and yet we can still identify the image. It just blew my mind for some reason. Also, the very explicit sexual content of his drawings. It was...um...interesting? I think we often forget that there were individuals open their sexuality, because we think of sex and sexuality as repressed under the prudish image of the earlier decades like 1950s. Oh, and in this picture, can I just note how ridiculous this background is and how much it clashes with my shirt!
Also at this exhibit was some more modern surrealist work. I absolutely loved it! This was one of my favorite. If I remember correctly I think it is called The Immigrant. I thought it was so potent and effective. Greetings from Bruges!
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