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more Brugge, Belgium Exactly 100 days after our first visit, we rolled back into Brugge, feeling like we were returning to our European home. This lovely northern city, more than any other place we visited, felt welcoming and familiar. But we were also feeling the sadness of ending our voyage.

Avignon TGV station With a country too large for slow transport, but too small for efficient air transport (if that's not oxymoronic) the French were forced to invent the trains and build a new high speed rail system. They did, and it works spectacularly well.

Our day started with a hair-raising trip through rush hour traffic to return our car in time to catch the TGV to Lille. But we arrived in plenty of time to admire the utilitarian but gracefully sweeping station on the outskirts of Avignon. Kudos to the French for their high speed rail system! With courage and singleness of purpose that we USers could NEVER muster, the French have built a magnificent surface transportation system from scratch. finding your seat ahead of time

our train pulls in

The trick to running a fast train system is to run in straight lines and big curves (Avignon TGV station is on one), stop briefly and rarely, and run on time. To organize this, riders need to know where to board before the train arrives, and the system provides the needed guidance. All seats are reserved, and the system is not cheap, but nobody complains. Everywhere in France is within five hours of Paris. Once settled in our seats, we watched the French countryside fly by the windows. As we circumnavigated Paris and headed north, the sky got lower and greyer, and by the time we arrived in Lille it was drizzling.

We almost caught the next train into Belgium, but we got confused because the French call Belgian towns by French names that don't appear on any map outside of France. We got all the way onboard, but then couldn't get confirmation we were on the right train, so we got off only to find out it WAS the right train after all. So we spent two boring hours in the Lille railroad station. When finally we were on board the right train and into Belgium, the trip went smoothly again, we made the necessary transfer, and just as darkness took over, we arrived at the familiar train station in Brugge, where we knew just how to get bus tickets and transport ourselves into the center of the city where our rooms awaited us.

the clock tower The cold November winds were whipping around us, but the view out over Brugge and the surrounding countryside was vivid. The two town squares were alive with people, and we could see the amazing collage of rooftops covering the neighborhood where we were staying. What an amazing warren!	Intensely aware that we were in our last week of European adventures, we determined to visit all the local sites we had missed on our first visit. While less beset with tourists than in August, Brugge is still a major destination for visitors, and we were not alone when we climbed the narrow spiral stairs up the tower. the street where we live
roofs and canal	Brugge grew up as a textile and trading center, and her canals were her thoroughfares. Now used to ferry tourists around, and therefore a bit disappointing as compared to Venice, they still introduce an interesting water feature right into the heart of the city that changes the pace and topography.

Ornate parsonage front

Town Hall

Back down on the streets, we admired the haughty fronts of the buildings around the town squares. In the cool northern winter light, the sternness of these imposing facades is only slightly lightened by the bears and stained glass with which they are decorated. Inside they are dark and rich and strangely lonely. There are two council chambers, one large, for hearings and more public gatherings, and one small, intended just for the council. large council chamber ceiling

large council chamber back corner Like Venice, the government of Brugge has many levels, checks, and balances, but here much of the complexity was imposed from outside, by the shifting ownership of the low countries during their heyday. These buildings were intended to inspire far-sighted, fair, wise governance. The wall paintings depict (on one level) notable natives and (on another level) cautionary tales about the wages of sin with special attention to what happens to greedy officials.

Library door

Next door, the town library's white-painted facade and ornate statues bely the dark woods and oppressive detail of the small council chamber within, where a few of the details of Brugge's history come clear. Library facade

Ferdinand and Isabella During its formative years, Brugge was the northern out-post and commercial mainspring of the far-flung Spanish regime of Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus's patrons. Operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary, it was allowed to manage itself so long as it produced tribute and wealth.	one of many "puti"
	Politics notwithstanding, the sheer artistry of these rooms is staggering. Every small detail is exquisitely and thoughtfully wrought. Imagine deliberating in a room this rich and ornate! where even the slightest drawer-pull is a gilded work of art. How could one take a short-sighted view? Then again, how, in these over-wrought precincts, could one remember to speak up for nature?

A strong case can be made that Brugge's success is due to a major break-through in the vision of its leaders -- not just into the future, but of what they were and how they arrayed themselves on their piece of the planet.

the "eye" map

oldest known map Brugge, and the civilization it was built to represent, was the first place in the world where humanity was exalted above nature, where natural events such as storms and floods were secondary to the affairs of men. The city thrived for a century, and then the port silted up, trade moved elsewhere, and time stopped. What remains is a strange time machine containing the best of all eras right to the present.

Brugge was dreamed up and built as an exercise in cultural boot-strapping: in one quick moment, modern tradecraft and the bourgeoisie were invented, enabled, and domesticated.

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