Belfry

The Belfry is old. Old, old, old. What more, it's a medieval bell tower.
It was built in 1240. That's like more than 700 years ago.

You can climb all the way to nearly the top of the tower... all 365 steps up. And it's a narrow, one person at a time kind of climb because the stairwell is old. No one thought that 'tourist' would be climbing up... yeah, I'll bet not everyone who lived in Brugge in the 13th century wanted to climb the bell tower. Only the bell boy/man would do that.

So I decided to give it a try. What's 365 steps? I've done a few of them towers before...


Up, up and away... Don't you just love the simplicity of the diagram. It didn't hit me right away, but the diagram is very, very accurate. The steps spiral up on a thin pole unlike other bell towers I've been to, and this doesn't allow two-way traffic! Well, I made it all the way up with about 4 breath stops *grin* The good thing is that I'm not the only one who did that.

Up at the top is a huge music box, you know the kind that plays music while pins are being plucked with a revolving cylindrical steel barrel. I was hoping that it would work... it usually rings every fifteen minutes, but just my luck, it was being maintained the day I climbed it. I can only imagine the vibrations and the loudness of the ringing because while I was climbing up, one of the big brass bells started to ring and it was LOUD!

Nothing much to see up at the top as two-thirds of it was under maintenance. Anyways, the coming down was pretty easy... it always is, isn't it?