Belgium March 2006 - The Lace and the Swans

Of course, in addition to chocolate, Belgium is know for it's lace. I went to a lace making center in Bruges. I had no idea how lace is made. Now, of course, a lot of it is made by machine, but here is was hand-made. There are all these little old ladies just sitting in a room and making it using wooden spools. It was incredible to watch. (Because I work a lot of crosswood puzzles, I do know that making lace is called "tatting".) THere was also a lace museum which had some really old lace in it.....even some Chantilly lace which comes from a region in France. Now, I never thought of Chantilly lace as anything but a song by the BIg Bopper - wonder if there is a story to that song?

And, course, all over there there are lace shops.....I stopped in a few to buy some for a friend in Dallas. They all told me that it was handmade, but the difference in price between what they were selling and what they had at the lace center made me a little bit suspicious about that. (Mary Ann - I sent you pictures of what I bought).

There are a few windmills in town - saw them from the short tour I took, but I didn't think they were that picturesque.

There are four surviving city gates (out of nine) where the city wall (blocking off the sea) used to be. One of them has a moat which is famous for the many swans it has. There is a legend that says that when the bailiff Peter Lanckhais (long neck) was murdered in 1488, Maxmilian of Austria wanted to perpetuate his memory, so since swans have long necks, he decided to punish the citizens of Bruges for forcing them to keep swans until the end of time.

Well, that's about it. I saw a lot this weekend - didn't have time for everything though. But, maybe on another trip.