Our Bruges Summerhouse

We seem to have lost the sun for the moment, but Bruges has been more about poking around the backstreets and finding little surprises. We are staying in a 17th century summerhouse which we have all to ourselves. The landlady filled us in on some of the history. It seems that such constructions were common at the time as people were going through a 'get back to nature' phase and building themselves little retreats in the garden so they could get away from their busy lives. It may be small for a summerhouse, but it is enormous compared to the places we have been staying in for the last 5 weeks. It wasn't really a surprise as we could read the reviews on Booking.com, but you still don't really believe it will be quite that Nice until you can see for yourself.

We tracked down one of the few Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy in an old church here in Bruges called the Church of Our Lady. We were surprised to be able to walk right in for the grand sum of 3 Euros and have a really good unhurried look at the sculpture and church. Just as we were finishing there were suddenly people lined up and crowds coming in. We think it may be that the day trippers had just arrived.
Bruges was every bit as lovely as everyone says and small enough to make getting around on foot quite easy. In the afternoon we decided to walk out to the main canal at the edge of the old town area to see a couple of old windmills and one of the last remaining gates to the city.Read more