Day 173: Westwards to Bruges

Time to move on again! This time it was a relatively short hop to the western end of Belgium, and the beautiful town of Bruges. It's considered to be one of the nicest small towns in Europe, with a medieval core area that has remained mostly unchanged since that time. But we took our time checking out of Brussels, eventually leaving around 11am.

Caught the tram back down to Brussels central where we had about 40 minutes wait for the train, which we used to grab a quick early lunch of sandwiches. It was pretty easy to tell which train was the right one, since there were loads of tourists getting on the same train!

Only a short ride, just over an hour, before we hopped off the train in Bruges. I'd been here on my previous Belgium trip in 2005, and distinctly remember enjoying the place despite only really staying for 48 hours, so I was looking forward to seeing it again.

Nothing seemed hugely different on the walk from the station to our AirBNB, though I guess I don't remember enough of the small details. Thankfully at this place we were able to check in fairly early, so we dropped our bags and spent a bit of time unwinding. It's a really nice apartment here - huge bed and an enormous bathroom with a big bath tub and lots of nice touches as well. Though it's one of the more expensive places we've stayed in so far, close to $200/night.

After relaxing a bit we headed out into the town in warm sunshine. Great feeling in the air, lots of people relaxed and on holidays and a very nice backdrop of buildings, canals, towers and parks. We wandered around for a couple of hours, and decided to do one of the bits of filming we had scheduled, at the beguinage in southern Bruges.

This was a sister site to the beguinage in Leuven we'd visited yesterday, but felt quite different. Fewer houses, all arranged around a very large central square. It's still in use, though not as a beguinage - it's been converted into a convent, so nuns wander around instead.

Wrapped that up, then kept on exploring the city. Bought a few bits of chocolate here and there from the fancy stores, and maybe a waffle or two. Eventually we settled in at a canal-side bar and had a couple of drinks in the late afternoon sun.

Approaching dinner time, we headed back to the main square where all the tourist restaurants are, making essentially a random choice. Decent enough food for a set menu, a grilled mussels type dish for entree and then I had Flemish stew for main while Shandos had more mussels. Then apple pie for dessert!

Back home very full, looking forward to another day exploring.Read more