Brugge, West Flanders, Belgium

Ever since I saw the movie In Bruges – awesome by the way, watch if you haven't seen it, I have wanted to visit Bruges And the more times I looked into it, the more awesome it looked.

Cute little medieval town, canals galore, bikes ruling the paths, beer, chocolate, and a step back in time. And it housed one of the most sort after pieces from the Monuments Men book, I couldn’t wait.

I took the early morning train to Bruges on Wednesday, its 1 hour from Brussels and then walked the 30 mins to my hostel. It was a beautiful walk past the canals and all the bikes, but I did put my bag on the line here as it was all cobblestones, but it survived! Just haha.

My hostel is quite central and as a cool bar downstairs. The highlight was finding a set of maps I’ve only seen in a handful of towns. They are maps of the town, purposely designed for young travellers, by young towns people. The artistic design, language and images are so cool! I’ve been collecting them as I go. So I picked up one for every destination I intended on visiting in Belgium.

Unfortunately I’m only here for about 24 hours, so I tried to fit in as much as possible. First up was the local walking tour.

Things we saw or did – Markt, Belfot and Hallen, the Bsailica of the Holy Blood – it holds a phial of the blood of Christ, Gothic Hall, Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk – houses the marble statue of Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, St Jans Hopsital, Minne water – also known as the Lake of Love, it has all of the swans.

Other things included the oldest brewery, where the lines runs under ground straight to the pub next door, fish market, scenes they filmed for In Bruges, the old red like district. We also walked through the Beguinage. It’s been a place for women since the middle ages, I think men could actually get arrested for trying to enter. It’s a beautiful area and was a safe haven for women I think. The nuns live there today. You can walk through it and in the middle is this beautiful garden with huge tall trees! I recommend it.

When the tour had ended I went and got my discounted waffle – which was great and different to the waffles in Brussels. I then took a walk about the town stopping in at one of the halls for a free concert of a guy playing a harp and other string instruments.

From here I walked the edge of the city centre, going out to see the windmills, a famous old boat, up past some cool pubs and back around to my hostel, following the canal all the way there. The afternoon cleared up into a beautiful sunny day, it was lovely.

In the evening, I had dinner at the hostel and then took a walk around the town at night. It was quite and cold and a little christmasy. There were these beautiful cute shops spread everywhere in the old buildings, and a thriving night scene I would suspect on the weekends. The old tower clock struck on the dot and played a little song each time.

There was also a cool art piece in the centre, where you could go instead and see out, that’s a poor description haha, see the pictures!

Bruges has a reputation for being one of the most perfectly preserved medieval cities in Europe and unfortunately it brings the tourist buses in droves. In the day it’s just too much, you can’t walk anywhere, you bump into every tour group going left, right and centre. It’s annoying. The town is too small for it.

So for this reason I got up early on Thursday morning to see the town and take photos of the icons without 100 heads in the way. And I was rewarded for the sun was out and it was a glorious hour, but it shortly disappeared around 8am.

After checking out of my hostel I headed to the church with the Madonna and Child. I had read all about its theft and rescue mission in the Monuments Men book and was keen to see it. It was much smaller then I anticipated, but still cool.

I also spent the morning visiting another church, which housed the viral of Christ’s blood, which was brought back from Jerusalem a long time ago. Apparently it freezes and unfreezes on the same date every year.

It was then time for lunch, one last walk past the many and varied chocolate shops before heading back to Brussels. I had arranged to meet Catherine at 5pm, she’s a friend of Louise’s and I’m staying at her house this weekend.

Writing this I think of all the cool shops, pubs, restaurants, and a movie theatre that I walked past tonight. It was just a beautiful evening. I followed my new map all around and see some wonderful sites. I would’ve loved to have stayed longer, but you can’t do it all I suppose. There is a great bike ride you can do from Brugges down the canals, it goes out into the countryside, next time.

Thanks Bruges! You were fab, except for your tourists, although mum liks to remind me that’s exactly what I am haha. Nah mum I’m a traveller, totally different breed lol.

ps. the spelling of Bruges varies, a lot

Movie - In Bruges
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Walking Tour
http://www.legendsofbruges.com/

Madonna and Child
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-stor… Czytaj więcej