最喜歡這一張，完全不需要修片… 天空藍，建築弄得很好且「作舊」的完成度也很高，水平抓好等待光線跟沒有人經過的時候就很漂亮

會想起小時候家附近的矮平房雜貨店，下午時分的陽光從窗戶鑽入就是這樣

這張桌子跟上頭的書籍等很有味道

古早鉛字打字機，這東西小時候還有在印刷廠看過…

不是Keroro軍曹喔… XD

二月下旬，Henry籌備許久的少帥禪園終於開幕，在微涼間斷絮雨的下午；自新北投捷運站上山的路上，隨著兩旁的房子漸漸變少，空氣也漸漸清新起來。

佔地不甚大的禪園裡有著兩株櫻花做點綴，此時正是盛開的時候，一片綠中的桃紅，讓閒適氣氛中有著不少驚喜。

湯屋裡頭可以日眺山景，夜賞燈火。

轉回餐廳，開幕茶會的小點心好看又好吃，特別是那個湯圓…

開幕茶會當然免不了 Herny 出來致詞一下，穿西裝帥度破表 （據說現在沒女朋友？ XD）

另外現場也擺出了之後餐廳提供的菜色，光是擺盤就讓人很心動，全部的照片就看最底下的 slideshow 吧。

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

這天下午先來到鳳林，這邊有一座名稱相當有趣的「校長夢工場」日式建築。原來鳳林鎮為目前台灣出產各級學校校長最多的地方，累計至今已經有一百多位鳳林人擔任過學校校長。這可能跟客家人(鳳林為客家人居多，而花蓮、吉安則是閩南居多)個性勤奮，再加上過去這裡為製菸的重鎮，所以鳳林人才栽培出這麼多的校長人才。類似鳳林背景的還有高雄美濃鎮這個客家村，過去一樣也是製菸為主，而有錢人家也較多，至今美濃為全台灣出產最多博士的鄉鎮。雖然隨著台灣都市化的情況越來越嚴重，鳳林與美濃的製菸工業也逐漸沒落，這樣的紀錄或許過個十多年之後就會被打破，但這段歷史能有地方被紀錄保留下來總是令人開心。

離開校長夢工場，在鳳林鎮上轉轉就可以發現到四落的煙樓建築。雖然雖然這個純樸的客家小鎮不再製菸，但從煙樓外的介紹文字與圖像多少可讓人揣摩過去的繁華。

離開鳳林的時候，已經稀落地下起雨來，心想原本計畫好的行程可能就此泡湯。但沒想到越往北走天氣反而更見清朗，到了吉安還出現了大太陽，於是就按照原本的計畫去探訪慶修院。

日治時期，日人為推動官營移民政策，在東台灣花蓮港廳區內的吉野（今吉安鄉）、豐田三村（豐山、豐裡、豐坪）、林田（今鳳林鎮大榮村、北林村）建立移民村，因此今日在這些地方還可以看到日治時期所遺留下來的建築物，而慶修院便是以前的吉野布教所，因為保存良好現在已經被列為三級古蹟。

在慶修院裡頭最有名的之一便是四國靈場八十八所石佛。在四國原本就有這八十八所石佛，信仰虔誠者便會行遍四國巡禮拜佛，然而因為路途遙遠，所以便有了把這八十八所石佛迎來供在一起，以方便人們可以時常祭拜祈願。而這個習俗在日治時期便被主要移入吉野的四國人帶入，於是便有了吉野布教所這樣的地方與這些石佛(大部分的石佛都已經重新刻製)。(其他介紹: 1、2)

另外在慶修院附近也有一戶房子，是日治時代村長的家，至今仍然被保留下來，可能目前的住戶有對它進行修繕，所以沒有十分的日式風格。

另外在小巷弄街道中的貓也十分可愛，不過比較怕生就是了…

這次去花蓮的天氣還不錯，藍天白雲下的東華大學在陽光裡更顯美麗。

I waked up very early, and arrived Ghent around 9. In the early weekend morning, this city was still in her sweet sleep with her colorful decoration.

I parked the car outside the city and paced along the river and the streets.

Suddenly, after a turn, I found a guard decoration on an old wall. I wondered this old building is a church, but most churches in Belgium should be in Gothic style or Roman style in general. And the area of this building is so large, and rounded by a high wall. Besides, I could find a large garden through some cracks of the wall.

Some Belgium travelers were also interested in this building, and we decided to knock the wooden gate and hoped there would be someone can answer and tell us more about this building.

Fortunately, a lady answer the door, and tell us about the building. Well, in Dutch. The kindly travelers tried to explain to me, and I finally knew this building is not open to the public. However, there was a special activity in the afternoon (2 or 3 p.m., I am not so sure now), so it would open after a few hours.

That’s fine, I can go to visit the city first, and get back here later for this building and the special activity.

Basically, I walked along the water. Scenes at the banks are really great and lovely. Somehow this capital of East Flanders made me relate the Love River in Kaohsiung.

The first architecture caught my eyes is Belfry. Well, it looks like a church, but it’s not! It worked as a bell tower to report time and a warning watch tower (Well, like the Town Hall of Age of Empires?!).

You can have a 360 degree view from the top of Belfry. Such as Saint Bavo Cathedral.

and Saint-Nicholas Church.

The Ghent Festival likes a carnival and is a collection of concerts, displays, installation arts and performances. You can find one of them in any place of the city (most of them are around the town center region). The festival usually lasts for more than one week. There would be different performances at the same spot everyday, so you can watch a lot if you stay long enough.

Well, there was a concert at the plaza in from of Saint-Nicholas Church. It seems an activity of the festival!

You can take a seat, order a glass of beer, and enjoy the concert. Well, the cherry flavored one is good. :p

After a few encores, I left the concert and headed to the old building I found in the early morning.

As I walked into, I found it is not a building, I guessed it should be a residence house with a large garden. Oh~ the interior is really old and beautiful.

After I checked some information flyers and asked the guides, I found this is a military training center in the old ages. There is a small building, which was a dinning place in the old ages.

Many people sitting in the building or gathering at the entrance, my curiosity made me walk to the counter to get more information about the activity which would be going on here. The staffs said this is a concert, and I should have a ticket to get in. However, I do not have a ticket… As I think I should leave after take a glance of this old dinning building, a man (I guess he is the host of this concert) came to me and asked me where I came from. I thought he must be interested in why a Asian face with casual (not formal, at least) dressing showed up at such kind of occasion. Anyway, he was surprised that I came from Taiwan and accidentally get into this old arch. He gave me a ticket and invited me join this concert with the enthusiasm.

This concert is cello solo and cello-violin duet.

Lovely concert. I also bought a CD as a souvenir. Then, waked back the town center and threw myself back into the festival.

There were more and more people in the town center, and you can find more and more performances on streets.

They even created a beach on the street!

As walking and watching the performances, do not forget the historical archs. nearby.

Saint-Nicholas Church

The old post office

The ugliest building in Ghent. Actually, this is a church, but the tower at the right side is never finished. Although many generations of people in Ghent think it’s the ugliest building, it also becomes a landmark of Ghent.

Beautiful river bank.

You can also find charming decorations on streets.

The tour map indicated this is the most beautiful building of Ghent. Well, I just think it’s the most colorful. :p

Another place I was interested in is Forza Ritmica, which was an abbey in the old ages. Now, this place become a residence region, the expensive type.

Although I only stayed in Ghent for one day during the festival, I thought Ghent is an interesting and lovely city, which keeps the old buildings well, makes travelers easy to walk around for sight seeing, and also ensembles new style arts.

↓Minnewater，很漂亮的地方。

↓Bruges 有著北方威尼斯的稱號，水道、遊船穿梭其中。

↓這張沒什麼故事，只是覺得藍天白雲加上建築的顏色很漂亮而已。:Q

↓大清早一群跟著主人出來散步的狗兒們。

↓下面三張是高級住宅區，不過以前這一帶是監獄，而現在這些高級住宅就是將以前的監獄改建的。唔，台灣好有將舊市鎮區建築改建很成功的例子嗎？

↓當地人們的休閒活動。呃，把它想成大型的打彈珠遊戲就可以了 :Q

The watercourses

Bruges is much closer to the ocean hundreds of years ago than today, and it was a city of trading and water transporting importance. Today, you can still see the water-lock-bridge in this city.

The end of this watercourse was the palace of trading in the past. (Actually, this watercourse went deeper than today.)

The watercourses are not used for transportation today, but they do become beautiful scenes in this city. (Well, after the government cleans them up. Just like the Love River in Kaohsiung city.)

The Financial City

Not today, but Bruges had been a financial city. The financial activities was rising and flourishing from early 13th century. As a trading center, there were a lot of financial activities in Bruges. In 1309, the first “bourse” (stock exchanging center) was built in Bruges. The old brouse in Bruges is the “Fries Museum” today, and you can not be aware of money smell there anymore. (only fries ).

The name of this city

Well, there are many versions about how the name, Bruges, comes from, but I love the one coming up most.

Because this city was a financial and trading center, so people here had to defense invaders. They facilitate the watercourses and expand them as the city moat. Concerning both transportation convenience and defense, many gates and bridges were built. So this is a city of bridges, and people called it “Bruges” later on.

As an important city, it’s not surprising there were many races in this city. And, people of different races liked to gather in different places, so you can find some streets named by some races or countries, such as Spanjaardstraat.

Abbey and Priest

There are some abbeys in Bruges, just like other cities. But, surprisingly, there is a priest school in Bruges, named Grootseminarie. More surprisingly, there are only a few students in this school, and only one student graduated in 2009. There were about 50 graduate students half a century ago. Although they can drink beers in the breakfast and be close to God, I still think they should find some ways to pull more students in. :p

Lace

Belgium is famous by high quality lace. Although most lace products in the world are exported from China today, you can still find many local lace products in Belgium. At the age of Crusades, there were many poor widows. So they can only lived in a small house. Look, what a small, short and low door! The small door also inform us that the height of people in the past is lower than today.

Those widows lived in the northeast region of Bruges, and they started to sew and weave laces for money and keeping their daily lives. The high quality of laces made Bruges renowned for years. However, with the increase of personnel cost, most lace industries have moved to China or other Asia countries.

Beers

Belgium is also renowned for its beers. Bruges had many breweries in old age, but only one left today — De Halve Maan(the half moon). They provides tour covers introducing the brewery and the whole process of making beers.

They had produced many brands of beers, and here is the wall of beer cans.

In Belgium, drinking beers can be a serious thing, not like in Taiwan. Actually, each beer has its own glass, which has the label and a designated line. If you pour a bottle of beer correctly, the boundary of beer and froth would be at the designated line, and the top of froth is just at the fringe of the glass.

Buildings

There are a lot of old buildings in Bruges, and you can find the revolution of building styles here. For the following picture, the left building was built in 1644, you can find the stairs-design frontage, and the same as the middle building. However, the building in the right was built in 1776, the frontage became arc design.

The Gothic style buildings can be found in Bruges. Pointed arch, ribbed vault and flying buttress.

↓flying buttress (the left most tiny part XD)

↓ribbed vault

After hours flying (and eating and sleeping), the flight finally landed in BRU. Because I did not do any survey and planning, I just walked to the car renting counter to get one car to start my trip in Belgium.

Well, not the preceding two. XD

↓ This one, actually.

After hours driving, it is Bruges. My first impression of this old city is, “OMG, am I in a town of a video game?”. The buildings are so cute~~~

This old city keeps the old Gothic style architecture and modern public installation art works.

As an important sight spot, it’s not surprising there are a lot of carriages!!!

Well, most of streets in the old town area of Bruges are tiny and brick-built, and a mass of travelers there, so carriages are probably the best transportation in Bruges, besides of feet and bikes.




In addition, Bruges was very close to the ocean a long long time ago, so it was a city of water transporting importance, and there are many watercourses in this city. Rightly, the boat is another important transportation.

Next would be “the history of Bruges”…

UC Berkeley 的建築有點類似羅馬復興(Romanesque Revival)風格，不過校園內比較新的建築物都已經改成較為現代化的建築外觀。而 Stanford University 卻盡可能的保持一貫的調性 — 土黃色的磚牆、磚紅色的屋瓦，同時維持著前拉菲爾派(Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)與羅馬復興(Romanesque Revival)、拜占庭式(Byzantine)風格的建築。

前拉菲爾派(Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)的風格可以從Stanford Memorial Church上看到，這教堂是為了紀念創辦人Stanford所蓋的，色彩繽紛的風格可以從外牆的壁畫以及裡頭的壁畫、玻璃畫上看到。

從較遠的地方或者從後面觀看 Stanford Memorial Church，可以發現他的屋頂跟一般常見的教堂屋頂不太一樣。一般的教堂通常有高聳的塔與尖頂形式的屋頂，比較偏向羅馬式(Romanesque)的建築風格，但 Stanford Memorial Church 為圓頂。此外，在內部也可以發現其天花板為半球穹頂，再加上外牆與屋瓦的色調，都會讓我想起希臘正教教堂的拜占庭式(Byzantine)風格建築，回來查了wikipedia果真如此。此外，拱形的迴廊牆柱、以及不平整的外牆牆面也都是拜占庭的典型風格。

↓希臘正教教堂 (這篇文章裡面唯一一張自己拍的 XD)

而羅馬復興(Romanesque Revival)風格則可以從比較新的建築上看到，比方說 Stanford Museum。高聳平整沒有太多裝飾柱子，光滑且規則的帶狀磚紋(belt courses)都是其特徵。而下面第三張是 Bill Gates 捐的 CS 大樓，下半部就比較偏向拜占庭的風格，上半部則是偏向羅馬復興的外牆。

不過校園裡頭主要的建築物都很鄰近，吃飯、上課等都很方便。此外還有個 shopping mall，要敗家只要搭個 shuttle bus 就可以買 LV 等精品，實在是個適合宅起來唸書的好地方啊！ XD