My wife and I were able to spend the Christmas season in Europe in late 2023 and early 2024. The details only came together at the last minute, but we ended up staying with friends near Brussels, Belgium for Christmas for almost two weeks. Then just after New Years, we took the Eurostar train underneath the English Channel to eventually meet up with other friends in Cambridge, England for a few days.
Throughout 2024, I plan on posting a few photos and stories of our trip to Belgium and England for Christmas 2023. We did not cover as much territory as we did with our 2022 trip along the Danube, but we did get to experience what Christmas was like in Europe.
It was quite a crazy trip getting to Belgium: missed flights, lost luggage, you name it, all on Christmas Eve. The stress made us susceptible to getting sick while we were in Belgium, which made it difficult to enjoy everything, but we tried to make the best of it. We even flew through Iceland in between volcanic eruptions, only about 12 miles from the airport, which eventually damaged part of the fishing village, Grindavik. We also had to find a way to dodge the threat of a labor strike on the London Tube, which would have interfered with our return trip out of Gatwick Airport back to the United States. The whole trip seriously made me have second thoughts about ever traveling by air again!
Christmas markets in the central city square of Bruges, Belgium, around dusk. Belfort bell tower in the background.
Bruges, Belgium
The city of Bruges, Belgium is enjoyable to walk through as everything is mostly compact. We visited a few days after Christmas, and the streets were really crowded, which was not our type of thing. But it did give us a chance to see what it was like with Europe’s fabled Christmas markets, where vendors were out selling Christmas foods, and in Belgium, particularly waffles, fries, and especially chocolate!
As my contribution to the Veracity blog is mostly about church history and Christian apologetics, I can not resist saying something about those subjects here. A country like Belgium has become increasingly secularized during the modern period, but its church history is largely well preserved, so its Christian heritage is unavoidable. There are several beautiful churches to visit in Bruges, one of them being Saint Salvator’s Cathedral, which dates back to the 13th century.
Interior of Saint Salvator Cathedral in Bruges, Belgium. The church was greatly expanded after a roof collapse in the 19th century. Yet aside from that, Saint Salvator’s Cathedral largely escaped centuries of strife, particularly the destruction inflicted by the devastating wars of the 20th century in Belgium.
More so than in many other cities throughout Europe, Bruges has sustained its medieval character, and a walk through Saint Salvator’s Cathedral serves as a great reminder of the historical influence of Christianity that pervades Europe, with so many works of art displaying stories from the Bible and instances of conversion of various Christian persons during Europe’s long history.
On a trip like this, I like take along with me an audiobook that gives insights into the history. Tim Blanning’s massive and learned The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions That Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815, part of the Penguin History of Europe series was the perfect guide. It was during this period between the Thirty Years War and the end of the Napoleonic wars when Europe made the transition from being the locus of Western Christendom to the emergence of nationalism as the guiding ideology. Belgium was right in the center of this story, with Napoleon’s famous defeat at Waterloo chronicled at the ending chapter of Blanning’s book, and the site of the battle less than a hour’s drive from where we stayed with friends.
The emergence of a post-Christian Europe has had a long history behind it, as nations like Belgium and the United Kingdom continue to wrestle with this significant spiritual shift. Consider the British monarchy, where the late Queen Elizabeth was perhaps the last of the firmly evangelical, historically orthodox Christians to lead a European country. Her son, King Charles III, has a more progressive take on Christianity, who considers himself a “defender of faith” as opposed to being a “defender of the faith,” as his mother was. Now Charles’ son, William, the heir apparent, wants very little to do with the Church of England. A recent news story suggests that William would like to sever ties with the Church of England, but that is not quite as easy as it sounds. Pray for spiritual revival in Europe!!
Ghent, Belgium, and Its Famous Altarpiece
The same day we traveled by train to visit Bruges, we also stopped over in Ghent, a much bigger city than Bruges, where riding a bicycle is really the most efficient way of getting around. The highlight of Ghent was seeing the Mystic Adoration of the Lamb, at Saint Bavo’s Cathedral.
This altarpiece has been popularized the most in recent times by George Clooney’s 2014 movie, The Monuments Men. The Nazis during the World War II occupation of Belgium had stolen the Mystic Adoration of the Lamb, with the intent of installing this great work of art in one of Hitler’s planned museums after the war. But with the impending defeat of Germany, there was concern that great works of art might be destroyed by Hitler, so the Allies formed a special military unit that sought to safely recover the art works stolen by the Nazis. The Mystic Adoration of the Lamb was one of those pieces restored to its rightful place.
The Mystic Adoration of the Lamb dates back to the 15th century, a product of the Dutch painters, brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Each panel stunningly displays a story or person from the Bible. If you ever go visit this yourself, I would recommend booking a time slot in advance, as this will help to avoid long lines of the many visitors who come to gaze at the altarpiece. My photo in no way captures its brilliance (but clicking on the photo to expand it might help). My only regret was in not seeing the altarpiece opening and closing, but there are some good videos out there that suffice.
Speaking of Waterloo and Napoleon above, the Ghent Altarpiece was captured by French Revolutionary troops in 1794, but the painting was returned to Saint Bavo’s Cathedral after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The thefts by Hitler and Napoleon only account for two of the thirteen times the Mystic Adoration of the Lamb has been stolen across the centuries.
The Mystic Adoration of the Lamb, in Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, in Ghent, Belgium. Stolen by the Nazis and recovered by “the Monuments Men.”
Look for more highlights of our Christmas in Europe trip in the coming weeks and months on the Veracity blog.
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