Brugge, Belgium

The last leg of our journey was a visit to Brugge, Belgium. This picturesque former trading center is a World Heritage Site, with cobblestone streets, beautiful architecture, canals, horse-drawn carriages, and windmills. It was a nice contrast to the large cities we had visited previously. Moving about was a bit tricky at times, with the majority of the signs in Dutch, and the locals speaking Flemish. For example, if you want to visit the Gruuthusemuseum, from the Markt, take the Wollestrat to Oude brug, turn left at Mariastraat and another left on Dijever (if you get to Mozenhoedkaai you've gone too far). As crazy as this seems, Brugge is still a touristy town and there was enough English to get by just fine. Brugge, and Belgium too, is famous for chocolate, frites (french fries), beer, and waffles any time of day. Not a bad place to call home for a few days.

Riding the rails to Belgium. The kids are getting quite accustomed to train travel. Monkey has the best view though.

We arrived in Brugge on Saturday afternoon, and the place was packed with tourists (imagine that!). Brugge is sort of a medieval Carmel/Monterey type of town. You can walk down beautiful cobblestone streets and window shop at upscale boutiques and designer stores. Its like you can go back in time, and take the mall with you.

Here is one side of the Markt in Brugge.

Brugge City Hall

Saturday afternoon in the Markt (market square), with plenty of people in town for the weekend.

On Sunday I went on a World War I tour through Flanders on the French/Belgium border. The town was just waking up as I was waiting for my tour van, and it was a nice opportunity to see the marketplace without all the crowds. Christa stayed back with the kids to rent bikes and pedal around the town. She'll fill you in on that escapade later.

Sunday morning view of the square as I headed off for my WWI battlefield tour.

Another morning picture of the bell tower, sun rising and the moon still visable.

Our hotel. Kidding, the building next to our hotel. The Provincial Hof.

Brugge is sometimes called "the Venice of Belgium" according to the tour books. Taking the boat cruise was a peaceful way to enjoy the medieval architecture and overall beauty of the city.

View of the canal as we made our way to the boat tour.

This is where we started our tour. We all liked the clogs painted like national flags.

We don't know exactly what this building is, but we sure thought it was pretty.

Canal view with The Church of Our Lady in the background.

Canal view with local homes on the right. Some of these are for sale if you're interested.

This is the Huis ter Beurze, a house in Brugge where Italian merchants used to gather in the 1400's. They claim it is the world's first stock exchange.

The Belfort, or belfry, sits in the Market Square and offers impressive view of the city if you're willing to climb the 366 stairs to the top. We made our way to the top and were rewarded with a gorgeous panoramic view of the town, including the canals leading out to the North Sea.

View of Brugge from the clock tower.

Another view from the tower, with one of the windmills in the distance.

Riding a bike through a quaint village, near a canal on your way to windmills sounds really sweet doesn't it?  We thought so- and it was.  It was also quite a challenge navigating cobblestones, horses, cars (on very narrow streets), crowds of people, parked cars all on ill-fitting bikes with too-narrow tires.  It just seemed like such a great idea.  If you don't want the long story just skip ahead to the pictures (of course we don't actually have any pictures of the bike ride because Tim had the camera with him on his WWI tour- so you can see photos from that).  And here begins the long story.....  The kids and I have breakfast then make our way to the Koffenboonjte where we are to rent the bikes.  Well, first we get lost on our way to find it, but then we get directions and find it- but I digress....   The man brings Will out a bike, but it was too "girlie" for him, with the purple flowers and all.  So the kind man brings Will a second bike that works just fine for him.  Ainsley and I think it would be great to use a trailer type bike- with her on her own seat, but attached to my bike.  It was VERY wobbly, so we decided to walk the bike through the crowds and try it further out of town.  Stopped at the store for a few snacks, then headed off, map in hand.  We made our way a few blocks before Ainsley and I actually got on our bike to try it and I'm sure it was a sight to see.  Both of us wobbling and teetering on this too large, unstable, thin-tired bike.  Hilarious, I'm sure.  We realized we could not do it, so we walked back to the Koffenboonjte.  We exchanged the trailer and Ainsley got her own bike (granted a bit too "boyish"- but fully functional) and again, we were off.  Once we were away from town we rode through the country, canals and windmill lined roads.  It was sweet and idyllic.  We had a snack under one of the windmills before making our way back to town.  We got turned around on our way back to town- I'm really not sure how it happened.  The town is SO small- it seems impossible to get lost.  We spent a good hour and a half circling the market square unable to find the center.  At one point we stumbled upon a playground, so we spent a bit of time there.  Eventually, after pushing our bikes and a few conversations about building character we reached the Koffenboonjte and returned the bicycles.  Whew- 

Waffles for desert! A nice way to end our stay in Brugge. They were delicious!