Antwerp British and International Women
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| Other events 2008 - 09: |
| On Saturday 27th October a small group of us
met up in Damme, near Brugges.
Right: The group sitting in front of the town hall for the introductory talk. Below left: The town hall, rebuilt in 1464, is about two thirds the size of the original built in 1241. Below right: The town hall. |
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| Right: The main street of Damme.
Below left: One of the old pumps in the herring market. Below right: the herring market. |
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| Right: The herring market with the
statue of a dog. A dog is in the flag of Damme. Legend has it that the devil, in the form of a
hound, scared the dike builders with his howling. When a dike threatened
to burst upon the town, the builders killed the dog and pushed the corpse into the
opening. Damme was saved from the flood.
In reality, "honte" is an old Flemish word that means "muddy place at the mouth of a stream". The word "honte" then degenerated to "hond" (which means hound or dog). |
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Right: The tall whitish building behind the blue car is where Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, married Margaret of York, the daughter of Richard Plantagenet, on 3 July 1468. She was his third wife and the wedding ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of Salisbury. She wore a magnificent marriage crown with enamelled white roses for the house of York and adorned with pearls; this magnificent piece can still be seen at the cathedral of Aachen. Margaret was to remain true to her Plantagenet ancestry and plotted against the new Tudor dynasty of Henry VII. She supported the two pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. |
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Left: The Church, Onze Lieve Vrouw.
(And we're not praying, despite appearances!) Below: at the back of the church is an area for recreation where there is a modern statue with 3 faces looking up at the sun. |
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| Right: An old street.
Below left: The old school is behind. Below right: The canal and working mill which can be visited on Saturdays. |
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Left: The long canal, originally built
in 1134, goes directly to Bruges. This meant that Damme became the
trans-shipment port for Bruges.
The camera didn't pick up the cathedral in the distance. |
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Left: The meal did not turn out
as planned. Instead we found ourselves in a hall with the local brass band
enjoying a "Breughel evening" along with their supporters!
The restaurant, Fort van Beieren in Koolkerke, and the whole complex is
owned by the famous horse rider and trainer, Mark Wentein. He showed us around the stables with some of his magnificent
horses. The tack room contained the huge collection of cups and rosettes awarded
throughout Europe for synchronized dressage with horses and coach and
horses. The BBC had also asked him to provide the horses for their production of Below left: Mark Wentein (right) in the tack room. Below right: This is also the location of Hippo Service and De Brugse Koetsiers. One of the stable hands with one of the horses used to pull the coaches. |
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| Right: One of the carriages used for
taking the tourists around Bruges.
Below: The horses having their shower after a hard day's work.
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