Wandelen

A ‘back-to-normal’ week with Dutch class this morning bringing its usual post-lesson exhaustion. We have a scant ten minute break in a lesson of four hours twenty minutes so unsurprising that I eventually stagger for the bus feeling around a hundred. I seem to spend the entire lesson span in a 

state of linguistic bewilderment [only Dutch spoken] and seriously question my intellectual ability to progress to Niveau Vijf, Level Five. We shall see; I would like to be able to achieve that outmoded amd geriatric pastime of reading and enjoying De Standaard, a very respectable-looking newspaper. Suspect that the spoken Dutch and more specifically, the heard Dutch, will remain beyond my reach!

This calm reflection encapsulates what I love about Brugge;

its art, its architecture, its canals, its tranquillity; its
hidden depths and surface beauty.

Between other little activities at the weekend, I went off twice to wander along, across, beyond the canals in the bright but wintry sun; Bruggelingen and tourists alike were opening their collective face to the light and Spring felt almost round the corner. I resolutely avoided examining the terrace which looks unloved and neglected, promising it outdoor benefits to come very soon. Work is sorely needed and Will Be Done when the temperature rises to comfort level out there.

Ditto. And all, around only one hundred metres from home!

I have dithered about including the photograph  at the bottom of this blog which has nothing to do with Brugge but does have a strong emotional connection for me. I received it this week from the son of one of those pictured in it and the memories came rolling along. Taken some time in 1955 or 1956, it shows the group of friends with whom I socialised constantly in those years, up to 1961 when my first daughter was born and Going Out was something that was chiefly unaffordable!! It is extraordinary to yours truly to think that I am the sole survivor clinging to the wreckage; all those meals and pub evenings and dances [SO many dances!]; all that good friendship, laughter, loyalty and camaraderie dimly remembered though the warmest and happiest of feelings remain. There are two people missing in fact from the photograph including the photographer who can surely be found strolling the Elysian Fields, almost certainly planning insurgency as he issues a celestial call to arms!