Past Blast: Bruges

The Bonne-Chière Windmill

An hour by high-speed train from Brussels, Bruges is a northwestern port city for Belgium. While its official city limits are quite large, its well-preserved medieval city-center draws the visitors. And while I didn't notice any hitmen on retreat, it's easy to see why Bruges is often referred to as a "Venice of the North".

Like Venice,
but less marble

Standing near a windmill, you're rewarded with a skyline-view

The medieval district is dominated by church bell towers, and it's not a bad idea to pick one in the distance and try to make your way through the winding streets and canals. There are small buildings straddling the waterways, and private gardens lining the roads. If you reach the outer edge of the district, you'll find the old textile windmills on their built-up hills, allowing them to reach the sea breeze above the mostly-2-story city.

Windfarming

Christmas is getting closer by the minute- which means so are a few trips driving between Chicago and Cincinnati. The ~5 hour drive [always losing an hour going east, and gaining 1 west] through practically all of Indiana has few highlights. Indianapolis, while having a couple trivia-worthy facts [most-centrally-located state capital in the USA, and the second-most populous behind Phoenix], is usually bypassed via I-465. A slew of odd, often quasi-religious billboards [probably worthy of another post sometime] make an appearance.

A windfarm worthy of Funkenschlag

The undisputed highlight of the drive is when the tall, silent wind turbines of the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm begin to creep over the horizon. I-65 cuts right through the heart of the farm, so line after line of the windmills twirl slowly by. Twice I've driven past people who have parked on the shoulder and brave the highway traffic to get some photographs. The ones gracing this page are courtesy of Cassie's passenger-seat photography.


At night the turbines continue to spin, but each tower is topped with a synchronized, flashing red light so that the entire wind farm lights up from horizon to horizon at the same time. Very, very creepy. Webcomic xkcd.com got it right. The speed that they rotate [WHOOSH... WHOOSH... WHOOSH...] is hypnotizing. Can't wait to see 'em again!