In Bruges II (The Sequel)

Only 70 persons are allowed on the tower at any one time (after you've seen the stairs, you'll understand; The stairs in Cologne Cathedral were like an Autobahn compared to this), so there is a natural line-up.  Add to that a cashier that is descendant from a slug or a sloth. But after 20 minutes wait I get to pay my 8 Euros and get to squeeze my way past the people squeezing past me on their way down. It's NARROW at the top!

taking pictures while standing in line. Soccer fans ;-(

Stone steps at first: see the rope? You'll need it!

Then it changes to wooden steps. Rope even more necessary!

Then I get to the chamber of the tower that houses the Carillon (Glockenspiel).  And it makes the Wurlitzer that I saw in San Francisco look like a children' toy.  Massive gears and a HUGE drum!

Thankfully no elephants were encountered on the stairs. It would have been impossible to squeeze by them!

The view from the top is a just reward for all the squeezing.

I'm not exactly sure why they needed SO MANY churches or cathedrals. Would one or two not have sufficed?

Squeezing down is even more precarious!

Yes, I was up there ;-)

On a ride around town I discover more sights:

Then I hear belle tunes coming out of the court yard of the church above.  Seems a concert is being prepared for tonight. Should I go ?  Tickets will be 16 Euros and they will be on sale at 8pm.  A few tourists squeeze into the courtyard to see what's going on but we are chased out by some authority person.

After too many glasses of Rose with dinner, I cycle over to the concert site, to shell out the 16 Euros for a ticket.  Alas, I am unable to, since when I approach the ticket booth I am approached by someone whose friend could not make it and who sells me his ticket for 10 Euros.  Dank U Well!

I am back at the concert site at 9:20 pm sans velo and Nils Frahm starts at 9:35.  While the 31 year old German sounds and looks cute in his fashionable jeans and his broken English, I do leave after one hour of the concert (at some point he mentions that there are still 180 minutes left !).  And it is not only the impression that the uncomfortable chairs make on my behind.  I do like Frahm's music, but I catch myself constantly waiting for the pseudo-orgasmic release and relief of Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene. 

Sleep ....