Medieval Bruges

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Friday morning we met our Busabout tour and began the 5 hour journey to Bruges in Belgium. Our guide on the bus was really cool and made the trip go by fairly quick by telling us all sorts of tidbits about what to expect from Busabout and as we headed into Belgium he gave us a brief history of the country and of Bruges. I didn't know what to expect from Bruges as I had never heard of it until we signed up with Busabout.
We arrived in Bruges at 12:30 and after a lengthy check in (there was 70 of us that got dropped off) we headed into the town to wander about for a bit. The town was super cute, made up of cobblestone street and a canal ran down through the center of the town. The buildings were all mostly gothic style and in really good condition. I found that there seemed to be more cafe's, pubs and restaurants than shops in the town and the shops that were around seemed to mostly sell lace. We found a little sidestreet that had a few cute shops on and one we went into was strictly a beer shop. I didn't realize how big on beer they were over here. They even had flavored beer! You name it, they probably had it; rasberry, banana, pink grapefruit and even chocolate to name a few. I was amazed but thought they probably tasted gross but made a mental note to definately try some. After wandering for a few hours we headed back to the hostel bar for a few drinks before our walking tour that evening. It turned out that they had rasberry beer in the hostel so I gave it a shot, and you wouldn't believe it but it was really really good!! Not really sweet but not bitter like beer either. I was impressed.
At 7 o'clock that evening we met a guide and he took us on a 2 hour walking tour around Bruges. He told us all about how Bruges was a medieval town that was the main port for products coming in by boat to the country but one day they closed off the river and no boats could get in so the town sort of froze in time and it wasn't really that long ago that it became a busier town again. Now the tourism industry keeps the town going. We walked down along the canal and saw old windmills for which the country is known and old wooden cranes that used to pick up the freight off of the boats. We ended by heading into the town which is the oldest part and saw a small building which keeps a piece of cloth that contains a drop of Jesus Christs blood. Our tour guide was really good and I found that I enjoyed the walking tour a lot more than the bus tours I have taken. I think you see more of the town and really get a feel for the atmosphere. I definatley would like to do another one.
Today was our only full day in Bruges and when we woke up the weather wasn't great but we still rented a couple of bikes and decided to ride out to the beach. We stopped at the supermarket and picked up a picnic on the way. We rode 5km's to the next town of Domme and when we got there it was super windy and cold and it even started to rain. We decided it wasn't a good beach day and stopped in the town to have our picnic and headed back. It was a great bike ride, I forgot how much fun riding a bike is! If you live in Bruges most people ride a bike. They even have priority on the roads over cars. Instead of cyclists stopping to wait for the cars, the cars wait for the cyclists. It's great!! We headed back to the hostel for a shower and this evening there is a local band playing a concert in the hostel so we are going to watch them and I may even have to have another glass of rasberry beer....or maybe cherry this time, we'll see! Tomorrow it's off to Amsterdam, and I am super excited about that! But for all those planning on travelling one day, I would DEFINATLEY recommend Bruges.

Just a side note - European keyboards suck!! It takes twice as long to write anything because all the letters and symbols are in different spots!

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