Day Trip to Bruges: Quiet Contemplation & Spiritual Reflection

Whenever I'm in Europe, I always try to take a side trip to a nearby country, even if it's just for the day. It's so easy to do given the numerous high speed train lines that connect the various major cities and besides, I love train travel. During a recent visit to Paris, I decided I to take a day trip to Bruges, Belgium, which is just a few hours away. The train ride was beautiful and scenic and in no time at all I arrived in Bruges and started to wander around to explore, discover, etc.
For a Spring day, it became quite sunny and hot by the mid-afternoon so I decided to get some relief by ducking into a church (St. Magdalena/Magdalenakerk) which seemed to be significantly shaded by some extremely tall and beautiful trees. In stark contrast to the flurry of activity on its grounds and even on the doorstep leading inside, the interior of the church was so quiet and peaceful. In fact, it was so quiet that I tried to tread extra quietly so as to minimize the potential of disturbing anyone inside.
As I walked around, I enjoyed the beautiful architecture and the way that the stained glass windows cast such a beautiful glow on everything inside. In the foyer of the church there was a reflecting pool, which apparently is usually adorned with some type of art display created by some of the local artists. On this day, the reflecting pool was perfect in its simplicity, free from any obstruction. Given that I'm such a sucker for interesting images of reflections, I composed this shot. For a moment I thought about not doing it because I was afraid that the sound of my shutter would be too loud, but I'm glad I did.