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Published: August 8th 2007
Brugge, Belgium
One of the most beautiful spots in the city - and also one of the most photographed. Another long weekend rolls around in the UK - time to take advantage of the 'extended' weekend break from work and explore another corner of Europe.
Our destination - Brugge, Belgium. A city refered to as the Venice of the North, with it's cobbled stone alleyways, beautiful canals, medieval architecture and most importantly it's gastronomic feast of chocolate, beer, waffles, and mussels.
If anything we planned to come home having covered the four key food groups.
We started our trip on Saturday morning - early!!! Ange and I were up at 3.30am with our cab due to arrive at 4.30am to take us to Waterloo Station for our first journey on the Eurostar train. We were stressing a bit when our cab had not arrived by 4.45am - with noone answering the phone from where we booked. But thank goodness it turned up shortly after and the trip was hassle free straight to the door of Waterloo.
I have to say I really like the process of the Eurostar - no airport hassles. Simple security measures and passport checks.
So while Ange and I sat down for a greatly required cup of coffee so early in
City Hall
Burg Square the morning, our travel companion Tammy was also having a panic attack as her cab was late arriving too. But all in all we arrived and were ready for our first train leg to Brussels, Belgium.
Ange and I were pleasantly surprised at the comfort, room, and smooth ride to Brussels - we love the Eurostar. While the girls slept, I caught up on some reading and watched the scenery zip by - apart from the darkness of the Channel tunnel crossing for 20 minutes. It was a surprisingly quick trip all up - only about 2 hours.
We arrived in Brussels and quickly found our connecting train platform to Brugge. The journey of 45 minutes was not bad, but as this was a more common train journey like any other train service, we did have a rather busier trip. I had to stand most of the trip - but the scenery was very serene.
Upon arriving in Brugge - we were greeted with an average sort of day - neither sunny nor too overcast. Tammy quickily sorted out which bus we need to catch and we made our way to the Brugge's Market Square.
One
Church of Our Lady
The tower is 118m high and conatins an extremely rich art collection - including the white marbel Madonna with Child by Michelangelo. of the first things we noticed was the immense number of pushbikes. Bike riding is a popular way to get around town - and obviously offers a cheap form of transport - plus it helps that the place is virtually dead flat.
On the bus ride in we came to realise the carnival was in town - as massive areas of town where scattered with amusement rides. It was like the Ekka sideshow alley just spread through a large portion of the streets for a three week period.
We quickly located our hotel - which was beautiful and so close to the key areas of Brugge - the Market and Burg, which where the two main squares.
We quickly dropped off our bags and got a quick run down from the hotel manager on the best sites around town and had him point out the best restaurants in the area. He did a really good job of explaining everything and with that we felt ready to hit the town.
Walking around you really got a sense for how quaint the area was - beautiful medieval architecture, cobbled stone roads, and meandering canals. There was a lot
of tourists and the place definitely catered for the market.
While wandering around just taking in some of the sites we quickly decided it was lunch time and started the scouting mission to decide what to eat and where. We were a bit surprised to find Brugge was a little overpriced on the food front and most places to eat where restaurant style and very focused on hitting the tourist market. But nevertheless it was time for a beer and some local cuisine. We found a nice little place and quickly decided it was time to try the traditional Flemish stew and one of the many local beers - and we weren't dissappointed.
Following lunch we decided to spend the afternoon just wandering around and getting our bearings and laying out the plan for the couple of days ahead. I was very keen to track down a pub I had read about on the Internet that was supposed to stock 400 different beer varieties to choose from - as I intended to booze it up sometime very soon and do my bit for experiencing what the local region had to offer. After some searching - which provided us
Local architecture
Belfry Tower in background with an opportuntiy to see the sites - I had located the pub in the back streets and made the executive decision that the girls and I would be spending Sunday afternoon sampling some of the finest.
But with 24 hours until that time we decided to see some of the sites. The girls were very keen to wander past and into as many of the local 55 chocolate shops as they could find - and even I have to say the chocolate was really good. Tammy wanted to give the retail shops a quick once over, so Ange and I took the opportunity to wander around some more. We took in all the local sights - most of it just consisted of the beautiful buildings and alleyways, but the stroll around the town was very nice. Some how we found ourselves in a little cafe trying our first waffle - not bad at all. It was inevitable that the early moring would get to us - so it was home for a quick nap before our evening.
We had been told of this place renowned for it's mussels - so Saturday night was to be a feast
of seafood and beer. Tammy and I couldn't pass up the massive pots of mussels, while Ange went for the longestines (like small crayfish / scampi). Everything was beautiful. Well worth the visit.
We woke Sunday morning with a good idea of the day ahead. The day was amazing - the sun was shining bright. We made our way through the streets to find the local bike hire place for our journey out of Brugge along the canals to a little town called Damme. That's right - it was take two for the BMX bandits - Ange and I are now old hands at riding bikes - and when we learnt that the biggest hill in Brugge was 5 metres our confidence soared. Slight snag though was fact that people drive/ride on the opposite sides of the roads over here - made things interesting while riding on the roads. At one point I ended up cursing this guy coming at me on the bike path for not staying on the left of the bike path - only to remember the changed rules - nevertheless I still won the game of chicken. I suppose the sight of a 105kg man
on a biking mission was enough to make him think better for taking me on in a head on crash.
The ride was amazing around the outskirts of Brugge, along the cobbled stone streets and paths along the canal banks. We then left Brugge itself and followed this beautiful path along the canals out to Damme - passing windmills and fishermen using longpoles. In the horizon you could see the big windfarms - looked absolutely amazing - really wished I could have ventured that far.
Our destination was Damme - a quiet little town about a 45 minute ride out of Brugge - it was decided that after such a long ride it was time for a beer and waffle along the banks of the canal. The town itself was very quaint and the old medieval church was well worth the ride.
The journey back was somewhat faster as I had lined up a date with the pub.
Arriving at the pub we were shown to our table - where we had the task of squeezing past some rather large older German genetlemen. They said something to Ange as she tried to shuffle past them -
How to Eat Chocolate - Ange's Approach
Ange's approach is well defined and tactical - she identifies her favourite flavours and ensures a well rounded chocolate experience. who in turn gave them this blank stare as she failed to understand a single word of German - except for the word 'bellydance'. They soon realised we spoke English and said their hellos and gave us the run down on the beers. Nice chaps actually.
Now I have to say - I was in heaven - I had a beer menu the size of a phone book - featuring some 400 different beers. It was a long afternoon of beer sampling for us all. Ahh the memories.
We woke Monday to a rainy day - which unfortunately put a stop to my plan of climbing the 366 steps of the Belfry tower to check out the view. So we took the opportunity we had before our trip home to hit the beer shops and chocolate shops for supplies to bring home.
So that pretty much sums up our long weekend in Brugge. Enjoy the pictures (they run over two pages) - many of them showing the sights of the region. Beautiful little town and well worth the weekend visit.
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