Romantic Pandas? Bruges

Not so very far from Brussels, in the Flemish portion of Belgium lies a small town called Bruges. If you have heard of any other city in Belgium besides Brussels, it was probably this one: ancient and picturesque Bruges dates back to the 9^th century. Buildings are still standing from dates as ancient as the 12^th century, and the entire town is interlaced with several rings of canals all criss-crossed by  tens of low stone bridges.

While Bruges is definitely beautiful, the day was made even better due to the fact that my Dad was with me! He happened to have a business trip to Brussels, and we got to spend all of Saturday together. Thus, the plan for our day: go to Bruges! We took the train in, the easiest way to get around in Belgium, and definitely started off the day right with a delicious hot chocolate. (I think I’m going to start a new policy that every time I go somewhere new by train in Belgium, I will get a hot chocolate. Always delicious in train stations for some reason…)

While we didn’t have the most beautiful of days, it being cloudy and gray, it was still a decent temperature and it didn’t rain all day! Our plan for the day was essentially to wander around the city at will, exploring whatever we stumbled upon. Since the train station brought us close to a park, we started there! Minnewater, or the Lake of Love, is a beautiful lake framed by trees on all sides, and a beautiful bridge and random medieval tower. I was a big fan of the tower and bridge, but unfortunately I couldn’t climb up inside it.  Follow the water and you reach Begijnhof. Within that name you discover what Begijnhof used to be- a monastery for women of the Béguine order. Béguines were women who had been widowed, but preferred to respect and maintain their marital vows living a peaceful, single and protect life in a community of other women. No Béguines live there now, but a few nuns do- thus the quiet nature of the monastery is maintained amongst the whitewashed buildings surrounding a courtyard full of slanted trees and yellow daffodils.

Fun fact about Bruges- not only are there swans everywhere (four of which can eat a grown man in 10 minutes according to our tour guide), but there are horses everywhere! No, not just galloping loose all over the city, but drawing carriages over the cobblestones. A very popular way to tour the city, touristy as it may be. The other fun way to tour the city? By boat! Bruges is kind of like a northern-European version of Venice (though I haven’t been to Venice yet), so I convinced my Dad to go on a boat tour with me! It was really cool to see the city by boat, gliding underneath centuries old bridges only four feet high and see the buildings meeting the water up close. We were a bit chilly after the boat tour, and set off in search of a café.

Never, fear, Bruges is also bursting with food. There are literally hundreds of pubs, waterside restaurants, tearooms and cafés. The trick is finding one not close to the main tourist centers where things get real expensive, real fast. True to being a Belgian town, there were friteries (fries-shops), waffle-shops and chocolateries everywhere. Literally everywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much chocolate in such a small area in such a short amount of time. Chocolate chickens, bunnies and eggs for Easter anyone?

The best part about Bruges was just exploring- coming across an antiques market along the canal, finding beautiful courtyards and a tower that looked like it belonged to Rapunzel. There are quite a few art museums, but we weren’t really in the museum mood, and so checked out the cool architecture and then moved on. There is also a super-famous Michelangelo sculpture in Bruges- the Madonna with Child, housed inside the Church of Our Lady, a building with extremely eclectic architecture since is took 200 years to build!

Looked like Rapunzel's tower to me!

We also visited the Choco-Story Museum, which is supposed to tell the story of chocolate since the Mayans. Complete with Lego dioramas.  While they have a lot of cool artifacts, and I loved watching the demonstration of how to make pralines, the famous filled Belgian chocolates, it’s really not worth it. Go watch ‘Chocolat’ instead and then do some research. It’ll be a lot more entertaining and cheaper!

The main square in Bruges is crowned by the Belfort, an extremely tall bell tower, which you can climb if you’re up for 366 steps. It over looks the Markt, the main square, full of restaurants and shops, just like the Burg and Vismarkt (fish market that still sell some fish in the mornings).  

Belfort

The Markt

We also visited the city brewery on our way out of the city- unfortunately the last tour was at 5pm, so we didn’t get to tour the brewery. When my Dad asked the ticket guy what he recommended to do instead, his reply was, “Have a beer. That’s fun.” So we did, going to the brewery tavern and trying the local beer.

All in all, an extremely beautiful little town, full of restaurants, museums and chocolateries! Being in Flanders, our French didn’t really help a whole lot that day, and English was our communication language of choice. Two last random facts before finishing off:

1.     1. Dragon Benches! Take a look at the benches in the city if you ever go to Bruges. The railings holding up the seats are actually all swirly dragons. I enjoyed it.

2.     2. You’re probably wondering why I called the post Romantic Pandas. While Bruges is a very romantic city… the real reason is that we discovered this sign:

My Dad promptly said, “Look! The romantic panda hotel!” I laughed so hard I cried. So there’s Bruges for you! Home of the Romantic pandas- and some very beautiful canals!

Me in front of one of the many canals!