Warm in Brugge

Pieter and I where married on the 15th of December 2000. This date had no more thought put into it than it was exactly 30 days from the time my thesis presentation was done and we could fly back to Brussels. Now, looking back I would have never gotten married in December. Not only was our honeymoon colder then hell in New York City, but each and every anniversary as been the same. 1st cold in Rotterdam, 2nd cold in London, 3rd sick and cold in Brussels, 4th so cold I can’t remember where we where and 5th…

Well, the real 5th in December we were not even together, but the fake 5th has spurred a wonderful idea and a new tradition. Last weekend we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the 15th of April, warm in Brugge! It was the best time we have ever had and I think this will be our new Anniversary date. Pieter’s father gave us a night in an amazing hotel the Relais Ravestein. Each room has been designed differently, we were in the Jooris de Brune it had a fireplace, Jacuzzi bath, rain shower and my favorite big softy robes (there where even matching slippers!) It was the type of place that you feel like staying and not leaving, but we did manage to leave and spend all of Saturday shopping. We knew before starting out that Brugge was definitely not the fashion city of Belgium, that would be Antwerp, but we were determined to find something. What we didn’t know though was that more than half the civilized world travels to Brugge for Easter weekend! It was madness, but luckily we where not there for touristy things, so whichever way the crowd wandered we always went the other way. It was really fun, although the problem was that we were wandering around without a care or a map hoping to get lost and that is absolutely impossible in Brugge. Always, after an hour or even less of walking one of us would inevitably say “Hey, isn’t that the hotel!”

Finally, Pieter found a nice suit jacket, cool pants and some shirts and I found a great original lithography at a second hand store, signed by Constantine Kermes for 6 euros (after we got home we looked him up and it turns out he is quite a well known artist from Pennsylvania, small world.) We then headed back to the hotel to drop our things off. Just as we got back Pieter says “I feel like going out somewhere to eat really nice and wearing my new clothes.” Normally, that would sound truly lovely to me except for the fact that I had on old Levi’s, old Nikes and a t-shirt and the only thing I had gotten new was a piece of artwork which definitely wouldn’t cover much!

So, we rushed out again with only 30min till stores closed. We ran into the first affordable shop and Pieter said “you wanted a new look, well here” and he threw me a coat, shirt and skirt of which not one matched, but who am I to argue he is the creative genius! So, I tried it on quickly and it look surprisingly good, but the skirt didn’t work at all with the old Nikes and we really didn’t have time to find shoes as well, so I bought the coat and shirt and we where done! We went back to the hotel made a reservation for nine and went upstairs for a Jacuzzi. Up until this point our trip was brilliant, but I do not recommend taking a nice warm Jacuzzi bath and wrapping up in a softy robe in front of a fire and then having to get all dolled up and go to eat. We were both so tired during dinner we could hardly enjoy it and all we could think about was the fire and softy robes, but damn we did look good!

On Sunday we got up late, had an wonderful breakfast at the hotel (including Belgian chocolate Easter eggs), went to a museum, ate frites (French fries) while sitting at the foot of a statue in the market place, had a beer on a terrace in the sun and walked the canals. It was an exceptional anniversary weekend.

Thanks Dirk!