Mardi Gras and Belgium

We had a field trip this week for Mardi Gras. First we stopped a couple places. We went to one church in Amiens that is the biggest church here. It had the relic of John the Baptist's head.



It also had his life's story in pictures, which was quite interesting. Also beautiful stained glass windows



After this, we went to Brugge in Belgium. They have a chocolate museum! Here is a giant chocolate egg!



Statues made of chocolate . . .


It was amazing!
And then we ate at the fabulous italien place. It was so expensive, but so worth it!!

The next day we drove to another church and saw a famous altar piece. I think it was famous because of its incredible detail. It was very beautiful.
Then we went to Gent to see the Mardi Gras parade. They dropped us off at one and told us to be back at seven. I was worried about getting bored, but we walked a lot. These are the costumes of the gille. They are the men that dress up and are in the parade. I went to get some waffles. They were fantastic! There was honey baked onto them and I loved it!
Then we watched the parade. They throw (or hand) oranges to you. Within the first five minutes, one hit me in the head. It was a blood orange too, so it looked like I was bleeding. Considering that, and that I don't really like oranges, it really wasn't the most exciting thing to do. Maybe if I was drunk like everyone else . . .

Then we finished up our trip by going to the Chateau de Chantilly. The lly is not pronounced, but it didn't stop me from having that song stuck in my head the whole time. I even took a picture of Chantilly lace just so I could say I had. Apparently the cousin of Louis XIV owned it, so it bears some similarity to Versailles, though on a much smaller scale (almost everything is on a smaller scale than Versailles, who am I kidding?) We walked around beautiful grounds for a while. It was a little muddy, but not too bad. We really wanted to take pictures in the Temple of Venus, but sadly, the statue was covered.

There was a taxi strike today, so it took a little while to get home because the bus couldn't go down certain streets because they were blocked. But I am happy to sleep in my own bed tonight. The first night in the hotel, I woke up at least every hour if not more because I was afraid that we wouldn't get our wake up call, and in the middle of the night, I turned on the light and told my roommate I thought we were supposed to get up and we didn't get the wake up call. She told me it was three thirty. Sadly, I didn't sleep any better after this. The second night, I was so cold from wandering around during Mardi Gras for six hours (in partial rain, I might add) that I had to get up, get an extra blanket and turn the heat up. I can't sleep if I am too cold. Of course, I was sweating when I woke up, but I slept much better after I was warm.
Well, now I have to do a little homework! And the pictures have stopped loading again. But they are coming! Never fear!