When you visit Europe you cannot help but notice the cobblestone streets, which you see everywhere – even in the new parts of the city.

When I grew up in the Netherlands, I thought nothing of it, but now, with Linda, I am seeing Europe “through her eyes”. In other words, I now “see” the details that surprise her, things that are “common” in Europe, but rarely seen in the US.

One such occasion happened to us while we were walking through the cobblestone streets of Bruges in Belgium.

We spotted these guys, paving sections of the street that had been opened up for some replacement of underground pipes. I had grown up seeing this all the time so thought little of it. To Linda however, it was “WOW! he is hand laying EVERY SINGLE paver”!

Check out the video on how he was going about it. Note that he was (on the fly) laying them in a pattern while at the same time, placing them so that the road section was slightly higher in the middle (to ensure water run-off). If you look carefully, you’ll see a string down the center of the road. That is the “high point” of the road and each side slopes slightly down from there. It was excellent to see him doing this so effortlessly.

Note that this happens ALL OVER places in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany etc. Not just in older parts of a town but even in new developments. There are different kinds (shapes) of cobblestones and they get laid in a variety of different kinds of patterns.

This is how they build streets, perhaps because the streets are (often) too narrow for large concrete trucks, perhaps it’s just how they like to do it.

Who knows, but it’s pretty cool..