The Miller Family Adventures: Flower Carpet and the Belgian Coast!

Hello to you all! Another week has flown by here in Belgium - I'm not sure where exactly the time goes, but alas, it's another rainy Monday morning, 'Diego's' playing in the background, and I find myself blogging again.

A little known fact for all you flower lovers out there: begonias originated in Belgium. To celebrate this, every two years in the central market square of Brussels (called the Grand Place), a "Flower Carpet" or "Tapis de Fleur" is constructed using 2/3 of a million begonias. This year's tribute is to the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The boys and I were lucky enough to make a trip to the Grand Place on Friday morning to watch them begin construction on the carpet.

Friday night, the four of us headed down there again to view the finished product - the weather was great, and, we've realized, you have to take advantage of that - no guarantee how the rest of the weekend was going to be. We were not alone in thinking this - there were THOUSANDS of people around. We decided to pay the fee to enter one of the surrounding buildings and view the flower carpet from above - well worth it. It really was beautiful! After the sun went down, they had a light show with the fountain that was in the middle of the carpet - but we were behind many, many people and didn't get a good view of that.

The view from above

Sunday we decided to take a trip to Bruges, also known to Belgians as "the Venice of Belgium." As most of you have been experiencing suffocating heat and humidity lately, here it's been as though we're already entering fall - and Sunday was late fall-early winter! Needless to say, we did not dress accordingly. Therefore, it was a slightly quicker trip to Bruges than we would have liked, and we didn't even get out of the car when we reached the coast, but we'll certainly visit again - while wearing the appropriate attire. Bruges is absolutely beautiful though - stepping into the middle of the town square is like being transported back to the middle ages!

Hopefully next time we'll be able to take a canal tour through Bruges

The highlight of our visit to Bruges was entering the Basilica of the Holy Blood, a 12th century Romanesque basilica with a Gothic upper floor. The church claims to contain a relic of Christ - a fragment of cloth stained with what is said to be the blood of Christ, wiped from His body after the crucifixion. Normally, the relic is kept in a tabernacle on a side alter, but as we were entering, an announcement was made that it was being brought out, and we were actually able to process by it, touching the glass cylinder it was contained it. It was really an amazing experience - to be there, in this beautiful centuries-old basilica among all these people who, although we all speak different languages, have the same purpose in mind - was really incredible. The boys, however, did not exactly have a handle on the 'reverant atmosphere,' so to speak, so we didn't say too long.

The relic is contained in a glass vial that is sitting on the red pillow

The Basilica is very small - about as wide as this picture shows

Well, Diego's over and Bo's just finished his third breakfast of the morning, so that's my cue to get the day going. I'll add a few more pictures of our weekend below. One is of the boys having ice cream - they're addicted - it's delicious here. Another is of me having one of many Belgian waffles I am sure to have here. In Belgium they're sweetened and they eat them as a dessert. You can choose from a myriad of toppings, but I just like it plain. They. Are. Amazing. Have a great week!