布鲁日 (The killer has no Holidays )

7月4日 星期三 Wednesday, July 4

今天坐了城际快车去了布鲁日，非常方便，大概有20多分钟的车程就到了。布鲁日应该是比利时很著名一座城市，整个城市可以说是一座水城，纵横交错并蜿蜒而行的古老的河道贯穿着整个城市，很多有几百年历史的建筑依河而建，这里经常被称作“北方的威尼斯”。走在鹅卵石铺的小巷中，众多的中世纪建筑，众多的哥特式风格的教堂，每个转角处都是一幅画般的景色；再点缀着众多的餐厅，蕾丝店，巧克力店，旅游纪念品店，糖果店，手工艺品，画店等等，使布鲁日似乎多有了很多的商业气息。布鲁日整座城市在两次世界大战中幸存，基本上保留了中世纪的样貌，很多建筑虽然有经过修缮，但是那种历史感是没有磨灭的。2000年布鲁日被列为世界文化遗产。

Today we took the Intercity Express to Bruges, which conveniently just about 25 minutes from Ghent. Bruges is a very famous city in Belgium, the whole city is criss-crossed with winding ancient river channels throughout the city and many centuries-old buildings built right on the river; which is why Bruges is often called, “the Venice of the north.”

Walking through the cobbled stone alleys you can see a multitude of medieval buildings, many Gothic-style churches. Each corner is a picturesque landscape dotted with numerous restaurants, lace shops, chocolate shops, tourist souvenir shops, candy shops, handicrafts, painting shops and many others. It seems that Bruges has become a little too commercial. However, the entire city survived two world wars and preserved the medieval landscape, the historical sense is still strong. Bruges was listed as a World Heritage site in 2000.

我以前从未见过的是布鲁日众多建筑的阶梯式屋顶墙，就是建筑的楼顶都是阶梯式的，据wiki说这种建筑是一方面是装饰的作用，另一方面是方便于完成楼顶的工程。最早在12世纪的这种建筑的范例可以在我所在的根特所见，我和PJG今晚特意去看了一下，然后其实发现，离我俩住处走路10多分钟的地方， 也有很多那种建筑，景色不输于大名鼎鼎的布鲁日，而且似乎更清静些。

One of the characteristics of Bruges buildings that I had never seen before are the crow stepped gables of many of the old buildings. The style of the gables, which, according to the wiki, is a decorative function on the one hand, and is convenience for the house construction on the other. The earliest example of this architecture dating from the 12th century can be found in our city of Ghent. We went to take a look at it tonight, and discovered that no more than ten minutes from our AirBNB, there were many examples of those kind of buildings and just as lovely as Bruges and a much quieter and less tourist area!

今天刚好在集市广场有集市，有卖各种水果，蔬菜，鲜花和肉类食品等的摊位，虽然热闹，但也挡住了广场的美景。

Today, there was a market in the market square (It’s Wednesday). There are stalls selling fruits, vegetables, flowers and meat. Although it is lively, it also blocks the beauty of the square. It finished by 2pm and when we returned the square was clear.

下面一些图片都是展示那个阶梯式屋顶墙的建筑。

The pictures below are the many examples of the Crow Stepped Gables.

我俩都很喜欢那个电影“杀手没有假期”，电影完全取景拍摄于布鲁日，我俩也心血来潮去了几个可以比较容易辨别和找到的拍摄地点，拍了几张照片 😂😅  左侧是电影截图。不过我俩发现，那些演员坐的长凳是不存在的，是剧组添加的道具！

We both liked the movie, “The killer has no holidays”, or as it is known in English, “In Bruges”.  The film was shot completely in Bruges, and on a whim we went to a few shooting locations that can be easily identified to take a few photos 😅😅😅 . on the left is a screenshot of the movie. However, we found that the benches where the actors sat are actually not there, they were props added by the crew!

补几张今晚见到的根特的那种阶梯式屋顶墙的建筑照片。A few photos of the architectural style of the crow stepped gables in Ghent that we saw tonight.

晚上回到住处已经是10点多了，不幸的是竟然发现水龙头里没有水？？ 这里的一楼在进行什么修建，我俩猜一定是工人把水管搞破了然后把水闸给关了。没有水怎么能活呢？ 我马上给房东的女儿打电话看她是否能做些什么。她住在离根特半个小时的地方，11点多她赶来解释正如我俩所猜，她说可以给我俩定一个旅店的房间，可是当时太晚了，搬去旅店很不方便，就建议她买些水，我俩可以凑合着度过今晚，明天看工人是否能把水管修好。就这样吧。

It’s now past 10 o’clock when we came back to our Airbnb and unfortunately we just  found that the water in the house has been shut off!!  There was construction going on in the first floor of the building and we guessed that the workers must have broken the water pipes and shut the water off.  How can we survive without water?  We immediately called the owner to see if she could do something. Her daughter lives a half hour away from Ghent and arrived around 11pm. She came over and explained that the workers had shut off the water and she offered to book us a hotel room. But it was too late and inconvenient for us to move at that hour. So we suggested that she buy us some water, and we could make it tonight to see if the workers can fix the water pipes in the morning. She said she will call us tomorrow morning to see what should be done.

Oh well,  nothing can be done tonight. So be it. Camping life it is.