From the 27th of March till the 21st of July, you can visit a remarquable exhibition about Charles The Bold (Karel De Stoute). The duke who wanted to be a king, was an ambitious man who lived at a crossroads in European history. In his dreams, he saw a new Burgundian empire which stretched from Bruges to Dijon. He raced from one war to the next, but soon became the victim of his own ambition, dying on the battlefield of Nancy at an early age. During his short life, Charles became one of the richest princes in Europe, the personification of the pomp and pageantry of the Burgundian court and a renowned patron and exponent of the most refined culture of his day. The exhibition focuses the spotlight on this important figure in European history. The Bruges Groeninge Museum will once gain show the pomp and pageantry of medieval Burgundy in all its glory, as seen through the eyes of the Flemish Primitives and as reflected in a collection of magnificent Burgundian artefacts, loaned from major museums all over the world. These artefacts include paintings, suits of armour, tapestries, manuscripts and masterpieces of the goldsmith’s (and silversmith’s) art. The Church of Our Lady (containing the monumental tombs of Charles the Bold and his daughter, Mary of Burgundy) acts as a second exhibition location.
The four star luxury Hotel Heritage, located in the heart of historic Bruges, has won the prestigious TripAdvisor Choice Award for Best Luxury Accommodation for 2009. According to TripAdvisor, this year’s awards are the biggest ever, with 443 hotels honored in the seventh year of the competition. Hotels received awards in the following categories: Best Bargains, Best for Families, Best Hidden Gems, Best Inns & B&Bs, Best for Romance, Best Luxury, Best Service, Best All-Inclusive and Best Brands.
Unlike any other hotel awards programs in the world, TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice winners are based on the millions of real and unbiased reviews and opinions about hotels on tripadvisor.com and content from across the web
The 24-room Hotel Heritage earns this recognition for the first time by TripAdvisor, after being in the top 3 rated hotels in Bruges for over a year. The hotel was listed #68 out of 100 hotels chosen from around the globe. “We are very proud to have earned this recognition from travelers who have experience the true luxury experience we offer at the Hotel Heritage,” said Johan and Isabelle Creytens, the owners of the hotel. “This award comes at a great time, as we are preparing for renovations and additional amenities that will delight our guests even more.”
Click here to visit the tripadvisor-page of ‘hotel Heritage’.
Once again, great news for Martin McDonagh and the ‘in Bruges’-crew. The academy nominated Martin in the category ‘Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen’. It ’s his second nomination. Let’s cross our fingers on February 22nd and hope he wins his second oscar!
OSCAR WINNING director Martin McDonagh has won the top prize in the second Annual Writers Guild Awards.
He was awarded the best film script for In Bruges , which he wrote and directed and which was released to critical and commercial success earlier this year. The dark comedy stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hitmen exiled to the Belgian city of Bruges to await instructions from their boss, played by Ralph Fiennes.
The other nominees in the category were Mark O’Halloran for Garage and Mark O’Rowe for Boy A .
The awards, known as ZeBBies after actor and writer OZ Whitehead (aka Zebby), are staged by the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (IPSG) and were presented in The Sugar Club, Dublin yesterday by Senator David Norris.
O’Halloran won best television script for Georgie’s Story , the third episode of the Prosperity drama four-part series shown on RTÉ1 last year. The other nominees were Marcus Fleming for The Running Mate (Episode 1) on TG4 and Graham Linehan for The IT Crowd (Series 2: Episode 1, The Work Outing ) which is shown on Channel 4.
The award for best theatre script went to Christian O’Reilly for Is This About Sex? and the best radio script was by Belfast woman Lucy Caldwell for Girl from Mars which was broadcast on BBC Radio Four earlier this year.
Excellent news for ‘In Bruges’. The film is nominated in 7 categories of the 11th Britisch Independent Film Awards:
- BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
- THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR] for Martin McDonagh
- BEST SCREENPLAY for Martin McDonagh
- BEST ACTOR for Colin Farrell
- BEST ACTOR for Brendan Gleeson
- BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR for Ralph fiennes
- BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT for Editing – Jon Gregory
Together with my colleague of fietsroute.org (Belgian Cyclist-site), I created an ‘In Bruges’-walk. It’s a 6 km (3,7 mile) long walk in the historic centre of Bruges along the main filmlocations used in the movie ‘In Bruges’.
Click the links to view a 3D-map of the movie locations:
The first pub Ken and Ray visited in Bruges. It’s called ‘Zwart Huis’ (Black house). ‘Zwart huis’ is the pub of the former ‘cinema liberty’ and ‘English Theatre of Bruges’. It was built in 1482 and you can still see some valuable interior details such as the wonderful woodsculpture above the fireplace. In july and August 2008, there are daily showings of ‘In Bruges’.
The restaurant in Bruges were Cloé and Ray had their romantic date. It’s called ‘Cafedraal’:
Some more making of pictures of ‘In Bruges’. Some scenes were filmed in the Philips studio in Bruges:
The hotel were Ray and ken stayed really exists. Some shots of the hotel were filmed on this set, other scenes were filmed in the hotel itself (http://www.relaisbourgondischcruyce.be/).
In June, The German television ZDF starts shooting a new movie that takes place in Bruges. The title of the movie is ‘Mein liebe ist bei dir, ein Herz aus Schokolade’ (My love is with you, a heart of chocolate). It ’s a story about 2 romances which cross each other and off course about chocolate (where Bruges is known for). One of the actors is Sky Du Mont, a famous German actor known for his role in ‘Tatort’.
According to the members of Tripadvsisor.com, Bruges is worth place 20 in the ‘Top100 destinations Worldwide’. In the ‘Top25 Europe’, Bruges even scores better with a 7th place!
You can find the top100 here: Tripadvisor Awards
Thanks to these 2 beautiful websites, you can visit Bruges virtually… I would recommend you to visit the city of Bruges in real life, but these sites are a nice alternative for those people who are not able to do it.
There’s a book available with the script of the movie. So untill the release of ‘In Bruges’ in your country or the release of the DVD (25th of July), you can enjoy the story (again)…
Click the links to view a 3D-map of the movie locations:
Romantic scene filmed on the bridge at the ‘Meestraat’ between the ‘Vismarkt’ (Fishmarket) and the ‘Groenerei’.
If you’re lucky you can see the dog looking through the window:
Great moment when Harry appears in the movie. This scene is shot on the bridge of the ‘Minnewater’ (aka ‘Lake of Love’).
For those people who aren’t familiar with the city of Bruges, here are some pictures from ‘In Bruges’ and a link to maps.live.com where you can see where it’s shot:
For the second year in a row, the Bruges beer ‘Brugse Zot‘ wins the gold medal on the ‘World Beer Cup‘ in the category ‘Belgian- and French-Style Ale’. The prestigious World Beer Cup awards were presented Saturday, April 19 at the close of the annual Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego (California) to a crowd of 1500 excited brewers and their colleagues.
