Saturday - Brugge

A movie crew setting up to film in Bruge. They were scoping out the area around me as I was working on a drawing.

Road building in Bruge. It looks like they are using soapstone for the curbs and lots of the steps and window sills. There must be a good inexpensive supply here.

Zoom in on the center. A lazy dog surveys the canal traffic from his pillowed window perch. He was popular with the boat tours, and the boat drivers must know him because they all pointed him out as if to say he's a regular at that spot.

t'Brugs Beertje from the outside. People are starting to stream into the world famous pub.

Bikes galore and tourists galore in the center of Bruge.

The bell tower in Bruge.

An organ grinder with a mechanical monkey plays songs for tips.

Typical beer store.

A lace shop. Belgium is world class in lace production.

A typical candy store.

A portable cart at the neighborhood market where you can custom embroider things on whatever. Unusual I thought.

Local Deli.

An idyllic canal scene with swans.

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Had breakfast with two French people at the B & B and no one was really talking - it was a little awkward but in a funny way. Went out to draw right away. As you walk along in Bruge you will notice the smell of the sewer every so often. After a while I noticed that there is a sewer grate about every 50 ft or so, and you catch a whiff each time you pass by one. Drew for a while - a nice canal and house drawing.

While walking I noticed a nice Italian pizzeria and deli, the kind like Pagliai's where there are a whole bunch of people that look like they are working really hard - so it must be good. Walked in an took a seat near the window. Immediately the owner gave me a dirty look. He was extremely hyper, despotic, and barking commands at everyone working there. My waiter came over to take my order. He was a young guy and spoke almost perfect English. I usually try to talk to people that look like they are under 25 if they are working somewhere because they usually have perfect English skills and are eager to try them out on a native - so they give really great service. Anyway, my waiter must have been doing a lot wrong because the boss kept berating him. As customers came in he pointed at which table they should sit at, so I gathered that he was pissed because I took my own seat without a command. Eventually the pizza arrived and it was not what I ordered but I ate it anyway - not wanting to direct the stink eye of the boss at me any further. The pizza was not that good either, I'd give it about a C-. But he gave me a ciao as I paid the bill and headed out the door.

Walked on to do some more drawing. Worked in the middle of an area where some guys were planning out the shooting for a movie. They were walking up and down along the edge of the canal and speaking into head sets about this or that shot. Walked a little further and saw the truck with all the equipment (photo above).

Nothing interesting or weird happened for a while but then as I was walking down through an indoor market when a guy in a pirate or medieval type costume pulled me into his store. He had some big story about how we were going to have fun and he directed me to stand against the wall under a bunch of postcards from allegedly satisfied customers of who knows what. So he told me to smile and a camera flashed. Then he started in on a description of a calendar and asking my birthday and something started printing out on a very old printer. First an image of a calender came out with a drawing of Bruge in the center followed by a very cheesy and badly printed image of my photo with my sign and a bunch of stuff written in Dutch. He pleaded with me to give him 6 Euros for it - about $9. I couldn't do it, even though it would make a good story - it was just too badly done. If he had asked a dollar for it I might have considered, but instead I got out as fast as possible.

Had dinner at a place called Cambrinus with is a popular beer destination and about 90% of the people coming in were Americans or British. The place was packed and they kept telling people it was full. Everyone was asking how long the wait was or if they could put their name on the list but they just said there's no list and we don't know how long the wait is, it's full. So I guess the system here is a little different. Of course no one was sure what to do next so most of them just left. After that I went to a small pub for a beer and to write some postcards. It took about 1 hr to get the beer, which didn't bother me because I wanted to finish the postcards anyway and was still full from dinner. The waiter/bartender finally arrived and said - sorry I didn't see you I was painting a picture or something, and then laughed. It was all in good humor and he wasn't trying to be a jerk. So finally I had a beer, finished the postcards and went back to the B & B to go to bed.