Around Namur
I've been taking a few photos around Namur as I've wandered around -- the sunny summer days have allowed me to take some nice snapshots of the town, which I'll share with you now.Some highlights of Namur are the weekly Saturday market, which happens in the University quarter (which is where I live). The streets are blocked off until around 2ish and there are hundreds of stalls, selling everything from fresh food to the latest kitchen gizmo, perfumes, clothes, jewellery, electronics, toiletries, all sorts of things. This week's haul of goodies included some delicious fresh fruit and vegies (a whole punnet of fresh fat raspberries and some tree-ripened apricots), a rotisserie chicken, some fresh baked 'artisanale' bread, a quiche, some mixed spices from the specialty spice stall and some other bits and pieces. Most of the vegetables went into a huge pot of chilli which I made tonight (quite tasty, though not as spicy hot as I'd like).
There are also some lovely buildings around Namur, dating back to medieval times (the citadelle) through to the more recent times in the city when it was built up by the Spanish (amongst others). The citadelle is the most impressive: this photo was taken not far from where I live (around the corner in fact).
There are some churches as well, this big church is my alarm clock in the morning, and keeps time throughout the day by way of a special series of rings. The main song plays at a quarter to the hour, then a simple 4 note melody is played and the count for the hour on the hour. It also rings at other times, such as 8.25 every single morning. This ringing is more a frantic ding-aling-aling than a song though, so I guess it's the alarm clock feature. I haven't worked out where the snooze button is though :(
There's another smaller church that sits on a very old plaza called "Marche aux Legumes" (Legumes is "vegetables", which makes it an odd name for a plaza.).
There are some old cafes (pubs) there, including Au Ratin Tot from 1616.
There are some other interesting buildings such as this part of an original fortified wall:
And some other lovely older buildings:
And don't forget some shops to remind me of home:
Then of course there's my place, which isn't nearly as interesting as any of these :(
Oh well :)
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