April 24 – Day 7 – Ghent and Brugge – We took a bus to Brugge after breakfast. It is an ancient, 15th century center for the English wool and Flemish textile trades.

It was also a center of the arts. Painters like van Eyck and Memling lived here.

We walked the the home of the Beguinage and Gardens which was built in the 13th century for a religious order of that name. It is now a monastery for the Benedictine sisters. We visited Our Lady’s Church which houses the Madonna by Michelangelo. Behind the church is now the Gruuthuuze Gardens which was once the medievil home of one of the wealthiest families in Brugge