An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors: Europe Trip Part V: The Procession of the Holy Blood

Thursday 5/18 (28 miles)

Thursday was our last full day, and the planned culminating ride was 100 km, or 62 miles - what in the U.S. we refer to as a "Metric Century". Perhaps in Europe, it's just called a "Century" - I'm not sure. I had totally planned on doing this ride; I had even ridden a metric back home a week or so before the trip (for the record, my house to downtown Leesburg is a perfect metric century, all on trails except for maybe 1/2 mile of street riding). But then something came up.

It turns out Thursday was Ascension Day, a Catholic holiday which according to ChatGPT (I don't know anything about Catholic holidays), "is a Christian holiday that commemorates the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. It is observed 40 days after Easter and signifies the completion of Jesus' earthly ministry and his exaltation to the right hand of God. On this day, believers gather for special church services, reflecting on the significance of Jesus' departure and the promise of his return."

Well, Bruges has something more than "special church services". They have a whopper of a parade known as The Procession of the Holy Blood, an event so special it's listed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Here's how UNESCO describes it: "The colorful pageant dates back to the thirteenth century, when a citizen of Bruges is said to have brought the Relic of the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ back from the Second Crusade. Led by the thirty city notables of the Brotherhood of the Holy Blood and accompanied by brass bands, more than 1,700 citizens on foot, in carts or on horseback perform stories from the Old Testament, the life of Jesus and the history of Bruges. Then, various civic groups venerate the relic and the procession concludes with a prayer ceremony, performed in several languages to accommodate the international audience." I decided this was something I had to see, so I gave up the (Metric) Century and rode only in the morning so I could attend the parade in the afternoon.

Our morning ride was through the Flanders Fields area, made famous by John McRae's WW I war memorial poem "In Flanders Fields". Such beautiful countryside - it's awful to think of it scarred with trenches, artillery, and death, as it was during World War I.

They couldn't set up the rest stop in the normal place because of another local Ascension Day celebration going on, and certain roads were closed, so we had to do some detours. Without going into the boring specifics, most of the group wound up together, with only maybe four of us being 20-30 minutes or so behind. When we stragglers got to lunch at Water en Vuur in Diksmuide, everyone else was already finishing, and they didn't bring out any more food - lunch had been family style and we had to make do with whatever was left on the tables - little bits of pasta, radishes, courgettes, bread, etc.

Sarah goofs around at the morning break

The break may have had to have been been relocated, but it did include waffles!

After lunch those who were continuing to ride continued on to the WW I Museum (I was sorry to miss that), while Becca called a taxi van for those of us heading back to Bruges for the parade. Except the taxi never showed. After a while Becca gave up on the taxi (which was supposedly stuck in traffic) and Becca called for one of the Backroads vans. You could tell she was getting stressed out about getting us back in time, but she never lost her sunny demeanor - a real pro. She warned us that the van wasn't going to be able to get us all the way back to our hotel. I pictured New York Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade level traffic, but Bruges is a city of only 120,000 people, so their version of "traffic" is nothing compared with American big city event traffic (or, I imagine, European big city event traffic). The van got us to within half a mile of our hotel. From there we made a mad dash and got there just in time. And bonus! Our hotel was along the parade route. I had spoken with the desk clerk in the morning, and he said the hotel puts out chairs for guests and that he would reserve me one. So we slid into our front row seats just in time, moments before the parade started.

The parade has bands, choral groups, reenactments of biblical scenes - both Old Testament and New, scenes from Bruges history, and culminates with the presentation of the reliquary containing what is said to be Christ's blood on a cloth. For this last part everyone stands and a hush falls over the crowd. There are costumes. There are animals. I think I took more pictures at the parade than I did of the whole rest of the trip. A bunch are included below. The parade was very cool, and those of us who attended were very happy with our choice.

Opening Group

Opening group -=singers

These girls would scramble and rearrange themselves while marching to spell several different messages - cute

Looked to me like a Scout-related band

The Imperial Order of Hershey's Kisses

Costumed Character

Biblical Scenes

Adam and Eve

Creatures in the Garden of Eden

God confronts Adam

Abraham

Animals!

Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery - you can see we had great seats!

Pharoah

Moses

OK, on to the New Testament - the three wise men arrive (this is Melchior)

The head of John the Baptist

Christ (with the Pharisees behind him - I think)

Roman legion

Christ and the cross

Bruges History and the Relic

Saxophonist from the Crusades

Court Jester does schtick about the horse poop (including bending down and pretending to eat it)

Medieval folk

Medieval folk sing a song and wave branches

The holy relic!

My favorite - this guy brought up the rear, playing music on this bell device.

The final evening's events included a beer tasting and then dinner. Since I didn't want to do a beer tasting on an empty stomach I ate the last of some snacks I had brought from Amsterdam, then headed out. We went to one of Belgium's many ancient breweries, Brewery Bourgogne des Flandres, where we tasted four different delicious beers, then it was on - by horse carriage! - to dinner (for me, a salmon appetizer, veggie risotto main course, and ice cream, with hot chocolate sauce for dessert). After dinner we walked back and I said some goodbyes.