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Published: June 25th 2011
Day 006, Thursday June 23
1630 (4:30 pm)
Cows, everywhere, left Bruges, now on the train from Antwerp to Amsterdam, incredibly comfortable private seating in first class. Antwerp was only a 30 minute stop over from Bruges, which I think I’ll miss as much as London.
Despite being extremely small in size, Bruges seemed as equally full of tourists as London, and just as beautiful and rich, culturally, and far more densely packed. With a population of 20,000 it is likely, at any given time, that there are most tourists in the city than locals. All the streets were cobble stone and could really only fit one vehicle in any given direction, additionally there were never any street signs indicating which way traffic would be flowing. Thus leading to multiple occasions where I found myself pondering the inevitable dilemma of 2 vehicles meeting in the street. I was presented with an answer, only once, as I watched while one vehicle pulled over as best he could allowing the other to squeeze past, both drivers displayed a smile and a nod, and continued on their way.
As I mentioned, this was only witnessed once, and not surprising as
Bike troubles.
Sister knows best!most locals rode bikes while most tourists walked. The pubs were all full, as were the cafes, and scores of tourists weaved down the streets. Alyssa and I were smart, we put the map away, and just walked in the general direction of where we wanted to go, enjoying little surprises along the way, until we came upon our destination, entirely avoiding the major walkways, avoiding the crowds, taking in the beautiful details of every structure, smiling at the ever friendly locals, and taking our time to soak it all in.
No odd stories for Bruges, it was an amazing city, we saw windmills, churches, cathedrals, and enjoyed every minutes of the perfectly picturesque little town that, from a 366 stair climb in a bell tower, looked like a little model city. Though we did start our sightseeing day by running into a girl who’s bike chain had come off, it looked as if it had been actually make out of rust. Naturally Alyssa knew how to fix the problem and without hesitation, did so. The girl let Alyssa wash her hands in her house, and rode the shoddy thing off down the street, the amount of noise it
In Bruges!
View from the top of the cathedral where Brendan Gleeson's character fell to his death ... made over every single little cobble stone half expected to end up finding her just around the next corner, nursing the same chain problem.
Of course one of the coolest things for me was seeing the filming location of the final conflict between the protagonists in the film “In Bruges” which won an Academy award for best screenplay, (and fully deserved it too, it was hilarious and very well written, a line of dialog was even included in a description of the popularity on Bruges that Alyssa and I read which states that since being called a shit hole tourism has shot through the roof, they cite the line “If I was a retard raised on a farm then maybe Bruges would impress me, but I’m not, so it doesn’t.” The 366 stair tower was used in the film, and we got just as tired as the characters climbing it.
A very memorable city, highly recommended to everyone, and I would return there in a heart beat.
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