Bruges, Belgium
Time was flying and our second last destination with Michael and Leonie was Bruges in Belgium. Within a few hours of arrival we all agreed that Bruges would have to be one of the prettiest European cities we had ever seen. We completely understand why it is listed as a World Heritage Site. It has a fascinating history (once the commercial capital of the world among other things). A visit here is well recommended.
We were staying right near Market Square and everything was still heavily decorated for Christmas including more markets and a very busy ice skating rink.
We decided we just had to try. There was definitely nothing graceful about our attempt but it was still good fun.
We climbed the Belfry, a medieval bell tower in the centre of Bruges. The tower is one of the city’s most prominent symbols and formerly housed a treasury and the municipal archives. It also served as an observation post for spotting fires and other danger. A narrow, steep staircase of 366 steps, accessible by the public at a cost of 8 Euro per adult and leads to the top of the 83-meter-high building, which leans about a meter to the east. and was surprised to see that the bells that are rung each hour between 8am and 8pm each day are in fact a man who sits in the tower playing the bells.
From the top of the tower the panoramic view out to Bruges is stunning and directly below at the main square, the image looks like something out of a toy story.
Bruges and well all of Belgium is famous for its Chocolate and each street is lined with many stores. How do you choose? We discovered they are all amazing.
Additionally they make exceptional waffles and are renowned for their mussels with Fries (or Friets).
Lace stores are also everywhere and beautiful tea houses, many that sell teapots. Yet these teapots are unlike any others you would have seen before. Shaped like pianos, doll houses, fruit, trains etc… You name it and a there would be a teapot design.
One small downfall in this city is that some of the locals are not very friendly. We had a very rude bus driver on our city bus tour (costs about 15 Euro per person – which we don’t recommend spending the money on), staff in some the restaurants were extremely abrupt and you definitely don’t get service with a smile. Of course this is a generalization but having been to many cities and towns now, this one did stand out as probably the most unfriendly.
We also made a visit to the Ice Sculpture Expo. Seriously impressive works of Art. There was even a slide there made of ice. Safe to say the room was absolutely freezing but seeing all the sculptures made you forget about that, for a while, anyway…
Still it’s a city that is really enjoyable to spend a couple of days, enjoy a little shopping – the cute streets lined with picturesque buildings, horses and carts to take you around, several museums and many Belgium delicacies to try. There are a couple of tours that you can also book while there that unfortunately we didn’t get time to do but we have heard that ‘Fries Tour’ at the Frietmuseum (6 Euro) combined with a Chocolate Tour is apparently very worthwhile.
Check out our gallery for more photos of Bruges…. (soon)