International Pillow Fight Day

We were fascinated by the outdoor men's urinal available as you leave Vauxhall train station.  At first I posed for the blog, then nature took over.  I have to admit, it's a very pleasant, and let's just say it, more sophisticated method of public urination.  The Brits win again.

Our big event for Saturday was the International Pillow Fight in Trafalgar Square.  I think we underestimated how many Brits were in need of a good pillow fight.  There were thousands of pillow fighters and watchers of pillow fighters in attendance.  Many dressed up for the occasion in one-sie PJ's, alligator suits, bunny heads and other fun costumes.

We were fascinated that there was no emcee or project planner who fascinated the event.  At the top of the hour someone whacked someone else with their pillow (you bring your own pillow) and it was on.  The advert told people not to quit after a few minutes and to stretch the fight out for a full hour.  That was an ambitious request, as any fighting done for that length of time, thumb war, rockem sockem robots or pillow fights, is exhausting.

I liked when someone was raised on the shoulders of a teammate.  At first they were king or queen of the pillow fight, then dozens of people would focus their attention on the raised up person and beat the feathers out of them.  Except for when little kids were put on shoulders.  The English politely tapped the youngsters in playful battle.

The aftermath of the battle.  We plucked feathers from our hair and coats hours later.

Happy Birthday, Wyatte!

Wyatte turns five today!!  One of the downsides to this adventure is that we miss these milestones at home.  We hope Wyatte is having a brilliant day xx

 

Dikke Bille

Jen found this book in a Bruges bookstore.  She thought the Dikke Billie book would be a funny post for the blog.  When we got home we Googled it and saw that the Dikke Billie series is rather .... pornographic.  We won't post the pages, but trust me when I say it would make our readers blush (well, not Diane ... or Fletch .... or, well, everyone else... never mind.  Still not going to post the dirty bits.)

In other news, I was watching the planes land tonight from our garden.  Every minute a plane landed.  I've come to love the dichotomy of watching giant planes flying over our bucolic views of the Thames.

Milking Bruges

Bruges is so beautiful that it's easy for us to drag these out all week!  And Fletch can't complain because we are still in a country other than England  :-)

Plus, we learned to use our panoramic option on the iPhone last weekend so I've got some panoramic shots of the square and the canal.

The photo below on the right is from a shop window.  Sadly the store was closed but in the window they had all sorts of real (dead) little animals in various stages of preservation!!!  We've already given my mother a taxidermied rat so how do we up the ante this Christmas for the woman who has everything?  With a dissected rat in formaldehyde!

Art Appreciation

Besides drinking lots of Belgian beer, we did take in a little culture at the Groeninge Museum.  Here are a few of our favorites.  

A man being skinned alive! (I bought the postcard of this but now I wonder who I would send it to.)

 I love that this guy is making this face in a painting from the middle ages.  Do you think his medieval mother told him it would freeze that way?  I also found something humorous in this skeleton intercepting a letter - the humans look sort of irritated with him rather than shocked that a skeleton is in their office to begin with.

The real fun was at this exhibit of tiny drawings.  I have no idea who did these, what they were of, or why they were there.  All I know is that they were so tiny and intricate that we were given magnifying glasses to see them.  

For the record, the drawings really were incredible in their detail and quite interesting... but this is what happens when you give us toys.

More Bruges

In response to Aaron's strawberry comment....here is Bill with waffle #2.  The first place (a waffle window on the sidewalk) said that strawberries weren't in season but clearly if you go to an upscale teashop and pay double, they ARE in season!  Also note those tiny little cups of tea - something tells me we're not in England anymore.  In Belgium when you order tea you get "yellow label" (lipton) in a thimble.

From the moment we checked in on Friday we were hearing about the big bicycle race on Sunday.  The stores would be closed, the streets would all be blocked - it sounded like a really big deal.  So Sunday morning we ventured out and, indeed, all the streets were blocked and the cyclists were coming down the street to gather at the starting line. The citizens of Bruges were out in full force cheering on the athletes.   We went to breakfast and by the time we ate our eggs, the race had started and every trace of it was gone!?  

And now....the various faces of Jen in Bruges....being cultural in a museum...

...having lunch in the sun - coat off!

...having (tiny) tea a short time later with a blanket from the cafe watching it start to snow!

...prim and proper on the street corner...

....and after several Belgian beers!

Legs and Eggs

Happy Easter from Bruges!!  

Saturday we wandered into a big market area of stalls with everything from leather wallets to grannie panties.  We especially liked the hosiery stalls with the colorful legs swinging in the breeze.

I decided to break my 3 year candy ban with some Belgian chocolate for Easter.   There must be at least 100 chocolatiers in the streets surrounding the market square.  Some streets had 3 or 4 chocolate shops in a row (then a beer store, then a lace store, then 4 more chocolate shops...)  We settled on the shop that was promoting it's connection to Rick Steves  since everyone love Rick Steves.  

Easter Eve is a big day for the chocolate shops but our server was very patient with our shenanigans.  We ended up with a mixed box of milk(Bill) and white (Jen)  chocolate with caramel centers. 

Note to Diane:  We only bought the G-rated chocolates!  :-)

We are up before dawn to head home - a holiday for Bill but a work day for Jen.  But don't worry, we will have plenty more Bruges in this week's posts.