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Weekend in Bruges
Emily and I decided to visit Bruges after seeing it in the film In Bruges. We didn't get any snow, but then again we didn't get shot at either, so it balanced out :)
We were there for two nights and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Bruges is very picturesque and, when you work out where the tourists congregate, very peaceful too. We also chanced upon an amazing ice sculpture exhibition.
We took the Eurostar from St Pancras on Saturday morning and found our connection easily at Brussels. We arrived in Bruges while the sun was still out, a beautiful sunny afternoon. The walk to the hotel was a little stressful because Google took us through all the busiest streets, but once we got to the hotel and dumped our luggage there we relaxed again quickly. To begin with, we went straight to the Minnewater Park, also known as the Lake of Love. That led us to the begijnhof, a nunnery with open gardens for (silent) visitors. A nun smiled at us as she walked past.
We explored a lot of the south area of the town before getting hungry and finding a small restaurant that served Emily and me pasta in a tomato sauce, and macaroni cheese. By the time we'd finished eating, twilight had passed and the town was lit up in festive colours. Afterwards, we took a walk around Markt and the other smaller market between there and the station, and we shared a tasty waffle with chocolate syrup.
There was an ice rink set up in the middle of Markt, and to finish off the evening we took to our skates and had fun circling around an icily-lit tree with the belfry lit up before us. Our hotel was just a short walk away in Ridderstraat, and we said goodnight to the budgies in reception (they looked at us inquisitively in silence before returning to their conversation) before retiring to our room.
After an excellent breakfast on Sunday morning, we took a canal ride around the town centre, and we decided that we would kiss on or under all of the 32 bridges in Bruges.
We decided to get some chocolates to snack on before lunch, and regrettably eschewed the advice of the guide book my parents had lent me recommending the best chocalatiers. A problem with Bruges is that there are so many tourists that unless you knew where to look, you were likely to be served by someone who not only didn't care about their work, but also wanted you out of the shop in favour of other punters as quickly as possible, whether you were going to buy something or not. In Dumon on Walstraat, while the counters were full of individual chocolates ready to be hand-picked, the shop assistant was having none of that and hard-sold us a pre-filled gift box instead, which of course was filled with the worst chocolates. We didn't eat them.
By contrast, the woman who served us in Galler, one of the recommended chocolatiers, was wonderfully friendly and accomodating, taking us through all the different types of chocolates and waiting patiently while we chose a few to taste-test with the aim of going back if they were any good. We picked a dozen different interesting-sounding ones and they cost less than the 16-pack from the previous shop. We stowed them away gently in our bags while we hunted for lunch.
To our delight, we stumbled across a cheese shop which sold sandwiches with a choice of any of the array of cheeses in the counter for filling. The owner (I assume it was the owner, at least, since the shop seemed like a single-person business) took us through all the Belgian cheeses before making our baguettes sandwiches with care. Emily had a strong Belgian cheese, and I had a cheese that had beer in, which was subtle and tasty.
We ate the sandwiches back at the hotel, and then tasted our way through the chocolates we had bought, deciding on our favourites. They were all amazing, even the curry flavoured one! My favourites were the Extreme (70% chocolate ganache) and the Anglaise (raspberry flavour ganache).
In the afternoon we walked around one of the suggested routes our hotel's map had on it, another quiet route full of peaceful, picturesque streets and buildings. As it happened, a little street market was along one of the roads, with carol singers performing a song with lots of 'ding dongs' in it, and a stall selling homemade glühwein, which was delicious and kept us warm as we walked past three old windmills along a canal.
We tried to get into the belfry tower in time for sunset, but the people at the gates were not accomodating - despite officially closing at 17:30, the ticket office and last entries were at 16:15 and so what that it was thirty seconds past that and we were already in the building? They'd get our money tomorrow. Instead, we visited another recommended chocolate shop for comparison with Galler (equally friendly but in the end we preferred Galler's chocolates) before walking to the Astridpark, which had a fountain and a children's play area (as seen in In Bruges). We walked back through the old fish market, which now sold paintings and other crafts instead. We nearly bought a painting of autumn woodland, but decided to save our money this time.
We went back to the hotel to warm up and look up where might be nice for dinner in the guide book. Bruges is very expensive, and we settled on a place that the hotel receptionist suggested and the guide book said was okay. Emily had shrimp croquettes, and I ordered scampi and chips, unaware that scampi means king prawns to the Belgians, rather than the tasty breadcrumbed shellfish in the UK. Still, it was tasty enough, if a little greasy, and the chips were great.
We walked off dinner by taking another route around the North of the town, around some residential housing. The sun had set but the sky had that wonderful after-dark quality where the sky was deep blue and the clouds were completely black.
On Monday we checked out of the hotel after breakfast, leaving our bags to collect for later. We went straight to the Belfry Tower and managed to get in before the crowds started appearing. We were at the top, in the same room as the bells, when they started ringing at 11:00. Ever so loud! The views from the top of the tower were pretty great. Bruges is surrounded by a canal ring and then suburbia beyond those. There are a lot of wind turbines, and we could also see the windmills along the canal that we'd seen yesterday.
We finished crossing the last of the bridges in a residential area, and while it hailed a little we looked up the best places for lunch. The book said Chagall on St Amandsstraat was worth fighting for a table in, but since it was Monday and the weather had been forecast to be worse, we got a seat immediately, and the food was utterly delicious. Emily had shrimp and chicory soup, and I had wild boar stew with potatoes (none of our meals for the whole holiday came with vegetables, which struck me as odd). For dessert, we shared pancakes with brown sugar and butter.
We swung by Gallers, lists in hand, to pick up our full chocolate selection, and once again the woman in there was friendly and chatty while we worked through our list. At the end, she gave us a couple of free ones as a thank you for our custom, which we both thought was lovely!
We looped around a church and along a green area towards the railway station, finishing off the final three bridges in Bruges. An ice sculpture exhibition was set up in large marquees outsie the station, and since we had money off vouchers from the ice skating we decided to pass a bit of time and have a look around. We were completely surprised when we got inside because the exhibition was absolutely fantastic!
Rather than individual scuptures, the exhibit was a walkway through an icy landscape inspired by Lord of the Rings and other fantasy works. There is a virtual tour at IceMagic.be - worth checking out if you can't get to Bruges before the exhibition closes on the 6 January - which shows the pathway through an ice mine, into a forest, then onto a battlefield in front of a castle, complete with a 12-foot dragon towering over other massive creatures. It was, in a word, breathtaking. My photos don't do it justice.
Being able to climb up onto the castle's turrets, then explore inside the walls of the tower, looking up through clear ice where you were previously standing, was also great -- then we discovered the slide (complete with patches of carpet to ride down on) running along the ten metre edge of the fortress, and had several turns on that.
The organisers knew their audience well, for there was a table full of boxes of tissues to blow one's runny noses into on the way out of the -6°C area! We warmed up afterwards with a belgian waffle.
Afterwards, we took a final walk around the lake of love, then stopped in at the cheese shop to buy sandwiches for the train home. After picking up our bags at the hotel, we walked back to Bruges station, caught the next train to Brussels Zuid, and were back in the UK two hours later, just in time for bed.
What an amazing three days! The full set of my photos is here: http://storage.nevira.net/photos/2012-12-bruges/
We were there for two nights and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Bruges is very picturesque and, when you work out where the tourists congregate, very peaceful too. We also chanced upon an amazing ice sculpture exhibition.
We took the Eurostar from St Pancras on Saturday morning and found our connection easily at Brussels. We arrived in Bruges while the sun was still out, a beautiful sunny afternoon. The walk to the hotel was a little stressful because Google took us through all the busiest streets, but once we got to the hotel and dumped our luggage there we relaxed again quickly. To begin with, we went straight to the Minnewater Park, also known as the Lake of Love. That led us to the begijnhof, a nunnery with open gardens for (silent) visitors. A nun smiled at us as she walked past.
We explored a lot of the south area of the town before getting hungry and finding a small restaurant that served Emily and me pasta in a tomato sauce, and macaroni cheese. By the time we'd finished eating, twilight had passed and the town was lit up in festive colours. Afterwards, we took a walk around Markt and the other smaller market between there and the station, and we shared a tasty waffle with chocolate syrup.
There was an ice rink set up in the middle of Markt, and to finish off the evening we took to our skates and had fun circling around an icily-lit tree with the belfry lit up before us. Our hotel was just a short walk away in Ridderstraat, and we said goodnight to the budgies in reception (they looked at us inquisitively in silence before returning to their conversation) before retiring to our room.
After an excellent breakfast on Sunday morning, we took a canal ride around the town centre, and we decided that we would kiss on or under all of the 32 bridges in Bruges.
We decided to get some chocolates to snack on before lunch, and regrettably eschewed the advice of the guide book my parents had lent me recommending the best chocalatiers. A problem with Bruges is that there are so many tourists that unless you knew where to look, you were likely to be served by someone who not only didn't care about their work, but also wanted you out of the shop in favour of other punters as quickly as possible, whether you were going to buy something or not. In Dumon on Walstraat, while the counters were full of individual chocolates ready to be hand-picked, the shop assistant was having none of that and hard-sold us a pre-filled gift box instead, which of course was filled with the worst chocolates. We didn't eat them.
By contrast, the woman who served us in Galler, one of the recommended chocolatiers, was wonderfully friendly and accomodating, taking us through all the different types of chocolates and waiting patiently while we chose a few to taste-test with the aim of going back if they were any good. We picked a dozen different interesting-sounding ones and they cost less than the 16-pack from the previous shop. We stowed them away gently in our bags while we hunted for lunch.
To our delight, we stumbled across a cheese shop which sold sandwiches with a choice of any of the array of cheeses in the counter for filling. The owner (I assume it was the owner, at least, since the shop seemed like a single-person business) took us through all the Belgian cheeses before making our baguettes sandwiches with care. Emily had a strong Belgian cheese, and I had a cheese that had beer in, which was subtle and tasty.
We ate the sandwiches back at the hotel, and then tasted our way through the chocolates we had bought, deciding on our favourites. They were all amazing, even the curry flavoured one! My favourites were the Extreme (70% chocolate ganache) and the Anglaise (raspberry flavour ganache).
In the afternoon we walked around one of the suggested routes our hotel's map had on it, another quiet route full of peaceful, picturesque streets and buildings. As it happened, a little street market was along one of the roads, with carol singers performing a song with lots of 'ding dongs' in it, and a stall selling homemade glühwein, which was delicious and kept us warm as we walked past three old windmills along a canal.
We tried to get into the belfry tower in time for sunset, but the people at the gates were not accomodating - despite officially closing at 17:30, the ticket office and last entries were at 16:15 and so what that it was thirty seconds past that and we were already in the building? They'd get our money tomorrow. Instead, we visited another recommended chocolate shop for comparison with Galler (equally friendly but in the end we preferred Galler's chocolates) before walking to the Astridpark, which had a fountain and a children's play area (as seen in In Bruges). We walked back through the old fish market, which now sold paintings and other crafts instead. We nearly bought a painting of autumn woodland, but decided to save our money this time.
We went back to the hotel to warm up and look up where might be nice for dinner in the guide book. Bruges is very expensive, and we settled on a place that the hotel receptionist suggested and the guide book said was okay. Emily had shrimp croquettes, and I ordered scampi and chips, unaware that scampi means king prawns to the Belgians, rather than the tasty breadcrumbed shellfish in the UK. Still, it was tasty enough, if a little greasy, and the chips were great.
We walked off dinner by taking another route around the North of the town, around some residential housing. The sun had set but the sky had that wonderful after-dark quality where the sky was deep blue and the clouds were completely black.
On Monday we checked out of the hotel after breakfast, leaving our bags to collect for later. We went straight to the Belfry Tower and managed to get in before the crowds started appearing. We were at the top, in the same room as the bells, when they started ringing at 11:00. Ever so loud! The views from the top of the tower were pretty great. Bruges is surrounded by a canal ring and then suburbia beyond those. There are a lot of wind turbines, and we could also see the windmills along the canal that we'd seen yesterday.
We finished crossing the last of the bridges in a residential area, and while it hailed a little we looked up the best places for lunch. The book said Chagall on St Amandsstraat was worth fighting for a table in, but since it was Monday and the weather had been forecast to be worse, we got a seat immediately, and the food was utterly delicious. Emily had shrimp and chicory soup, and I had wild boar stew with potatoes (none of our meals for the whole holiday came with vegetables, which struck me as odd). For dessert, we shared pancakes with brown sugar and butter.
We swung by Gallers, lists in hand, to pick up our full chocolate selection, and once again the woman in there was friendly and chatty while we worked through our list. At the end, she gave us a couple of free ones as a thank you for our custom, which we both thought was lovely!
We looped around a church and along a green area towards the railway station, finishing off the final three bridges in Bruges. An ice sculpture exhibition was set up in large marquees outsie the station, and since we had money off vouchers from the ice skating we decided to pass a bit of time and have a look around. We were completely surprised when we got inside because the exhibition was absolutely fantastic!
Rather than individual scuptures, the exhibit was a walkway through an icy landscape inspired by Lord of the Rings and other fantasy works. There is a virtual tour at IceMagic.be - worth checking out if you can't get to Bruges before the exhibition closes on the 6 January - which shows the pathway through an ice mine, into a forest, then onto a battlefield in front of a castle, complete with a 12-foot dragon towering over other massive creatures. It was, in a word, breathtaking. My photos don't do it justice.
Being able to climb up onto the castle's turrets, then explore inside the walls of the tower, looking up through clear ice where you were previously standing, was also great -- then we discovered the slide (complete with patches of carpet to ride down on) running along the ten metre edge of the fortress, and had several turns on that.
The organisers knew their audience well, for there was a table full of boxes of tissues to blow one's runny noses into on the way out of the -6°C area! We warmed up afterwards with a belgian waffle.
Afterwards, we took a final walk around the lake of love, then stopped in at the cheese shop to buy sandwiches for the train home. After picking up our bags at the hotel, we walked back to Bruges station, caught the next train to Brussels Zuid, and were back in the UK two hours later, just in time for bed.
What an amazing three days! The full set of my photos is here: http://storage.nevira.net/photos/2012-12-bruges/