Autoloze Zondag

 Game small child tackling skills training course
on the Burg.

Too much rain in the past week yet Autoloze Zondag dawned cool but sunny. As I walked to the Crowne Plaza hotel this morning at around 6.45, stalls were being erected on the Burg ready for activities from 10.00 and, no doubt, other sites were in similar early preparation. The idea of lots of fun and games, and interesting things to see and do during a day when cars are forbidden in the streets of the Egg, is somehow really joyful and different. It marks the whole day as very particular, as the Italians would say; distinctive, significant, exceptional. And in the case of Brugge, great fun!

 Marec, acknowledging the honour in slightly
insouciant style!

And so it has proved. Hundreds if not thousands, thronging the streets of Brugge and a holiday atmosphere everywhere. I went first to the Feestelijke Opening in the entrance courtyard to the Biekorf Theatrezaal, the Library Theatre. It was crowded partly because citizens are interested in what is happening in their town and also because, after the ceremony there was free beer, soft drinks and coffee! I do like the notion of designating a space, like this courtyard, with a different honorary name associated with culture, each year. Until today, it had been Jacqueline Compernolleplein then, from around 11.00 this morning, it has been christened Marec-plein in honour of a Bruggean cartoonist whose shop is nearby in Sint Jakobstraat. There were speeches, to set the context, to thank Jacqueline and present her with a gift and to confer the honour on Marec whose good humour amused everyone throughout! There were families there with babies and toddlers and lots of older townspeople, all interested, greeting each other with much kissing and hand shaking. It was yet another example of the community spirit engendered here through a variety of activities and events during the year.

I was determined to scour the Rommelmarket which seemed to run the length of Langestraat, to try to find a friend, absent from our Wednesday coffee mornings for ages, whose husband has been summarily dispatched to work in Sydney! She and a friend normally have a stall on any Rommelmarkt going in Brugge. I found her and her well-stocked tables and we caught up. He is already there, their house is sold and they finally leave Brugge in early January; she, meantime, is trying to be positive about an unwanted three year move from Europe to the Antipodes and is planning to initiate or join antique/bric-a-brac/Rommelmarkt activities somewhere in Sydney after they find a house to buy.

Future Ringo Starrs?

En route to and from her stall I soaked up the happy atmosphere and watched children trying to play drums in Sint Jakobstraat, master a bicycle course for toddlers in the Burg, having a jolly go on art through ‘cycling’ on a stall where the adult in charge tipped paints into a sort of wheel and the cycle attached, when powered by a small person, mixed, and produced, glorious effects. The whole of Sint Jakobsstraat was given over to stalls on ‘culture’ covering chiefly art and music. The Markt was full of tourists and townspeople  , walking through, sitting at cafe tables in the sun, watching a performance on the usual makeshift stage which one so often sees here, appearing, mushroom-like overnight for a performance the next day. I didn’t understand what the chat show on the stage was really about but it involved dedicated cyclists and a noisy question master in a back-facing baseball cap!! The atmosphere was upbeat. I have to add that this year's was a particularly impressive programme. I failed to make it to the Concertgebouw which was open for tours, musical performances and family workshops. I missed the 5km run through the historic centre; the wheelchair obstacle course, the mussels festival and concert on the Vismarkt and tango in Simon Stevinplein. In fact I walked past the Vismarkt at around 19.00 and the mussels were just finishing but a robust women-only act on the stage was in full swing to the crowded arena.

 Ecstatic cycling artist can be seen, in pink bow.

 A higher tone set in the entrance to
the Conservatoire.

 En route at 19.00 to Minderbroedersstraat next to Astridpark,
 I chanced upon this very relaxed plastic cow outside
a super cheese shop!