I have visited Belgium twice now and I have fallen in love with the architecture, food and atmosphere. I find myself drawn to photographing it's cities in sepia and by doing that I hopefully present the area with the feeling it gives me, nostalgia; an appreciation for preserving it's history through their architecture, lifestyle, trades and talents.
Take for instance their lace industry. Of course it all started out handmade and has progressed to machine made with the age of technology. You can buy either, depending whether you want to spend a little or a lot. I can't hardly bring myself to pay the lesser knowing that there are still lace artist's out there crafting these beauties by hand. Which brings me to this video I took in Brugge. There are times in life where a wrong turn that takes you to your destination in a round about way, really pays off and rewards you with the unexpected. Mark and I have found that we really need to embrace the times we get "lost" when traveling. We need to stop, look around and see the sights around us that we might have missed had we found the "right" way, instead of arguing in front of our children and our visitors. Sorry girls, Gary and Danette . . . and Ellie.
We were trying to get to the Church of our Lady when we took a turn that lead us the long way around to the entrance. We were rewarded with a wonderful, quiet and scenic walk through the back canal streets and a quaint little park, well up until the time a gigantic tour bus dumped it's frantic contents into our path and literally shoved us out of our lovely walk. Why is it that bus tourists are so frantic? I swear they are sure that they are more important than us poor folk out on our own and that the sight to behold is going to catch on fire if they don't get to it right away! Right next to a little shop was this lace artist, hid away in the nook of the street. She had a couple of her creations hung on the wall next to her which you can see in the video. All she had was an alleyway, her table and her talent. And as all the frantic tourbusers ran quickly past her, I assume to put out the fire. . . we on the other hand took a moment to have a true Belgian experience AND we didn't even have to pay an entrance fee. I think the highlight for me of our Brugge trip was the wrong turn that we took that lead us to her.
Of course we deposited a couple of euro into her little basket to reward her for her talents and I truely hope that others did this as well. In hind sight I could just kick myself for not buying something from her.
Ellie and mommy:
One of Brugge's treasures is Michelangelo's sculpture of the Madonna and Child. Because of my fortunate time of life here in Europe I have been one lucky girl to see his magnificent creations and I continue to be surprisingly moved each time. No other artwork has done this to me, even an oil painting of his in the Louvre brought me to tears and I was not prepared for this reaction.
And finally on a lighter note, check out the bathrooms in Brugge. Note that this really makes it appear that men are more catered to than women if they provide these random relief boxes. BUT then again maybe it is a sign of respect that they don't make us relieve ourselves as the fresh wind sneaks up our backside. And, yes, that is my husband and yes, I did get permission. I wasn't trying to pull a paparazzi on a stranger, plus if I would have shot the previous user, I would have shot something that belonged in a x-rated movie. . . . he was not quite all the way into the box. Children's eyes were diverted thank goodness, too bad my eyes weren't . . . yes, my eyes were burning. Hopefully the image will depart sooner than later.
3 comments:
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Seriously, love every post. We have a good friend from Belgium - I had no idea how amazing that place is. Loved the video of the lady making lace and I love all the pictures. thanks Mark for being willing to provide a visual for us! Ü
I LOVE bobbin Lace and DESPERATELY want to learn to do it. I once had a friend who did it expertly. I checked in to the cost of getting all the supplies and nearly died! The bobbins (the wooden dowels she is using with the threads wound around them) are NOT cheap! And, it takes FOREVER to create a piece of lace. I spoke with some ladies at a fair once who were considered experts at the craft and they said that it took them a half hour to create a half inch of lace. (Give me a crochet hook! I can do several rows of that in a half hour!) But, I still want to learn how to do this. Next time you go to Belgium, will you please price the supplies there for me? Maybe they don't cost as much there if there are still people doing it. Not like here where there are very few people who do bobbin lace. How lucky that you got to see an artist at work. Bobbin Lace making is truly a dying art.
That's really cool. My goodness...how doid she know which thread to move so quickly? I will have to get lost in Brugge next time we go.
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