Bruges

[susie_flo]

Good evening fiends. Hope you're all well. I thought it was time to pop in and blither for a bit and share some pics...

G and I arrived home from Bruges late on Thursday evening with a suitcase full of Belgian Couverture. We had a lovely time, though it's always a pleasure to return home, don't you think?

It won't surprise you to hear that Bruges is extraordinarily pretty and *extremely* christmasy. It veers between the full on Xmas tat of the Markt square (ice rink + Xmas market) and the tasteful twinkly white-lightiness of the rest of town. Our first afternoon was marked by a beautiful, crisp blue sky. Sadly this was followed by two days of on-off drizzle (Pah!) but it didn't spoil the fun.

I've put a handful of pics here...




















And loads more pics on Flickr here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanflockhart/sets/72157622817516521/


So... here are ten things worth noting about Bruges:

1. The Belfry tower... climbing this involves a series of narrow, winding staircases (367 steps in total). Some of them are very dinky steps, which might be a bit scary if you have great big man-feet and it's also mighty tricky navigating around other people coming back down the other way. Still, G and I managed it, with much heavy breathing, and were rewarded by freezing drizzle and a wet, misty view of Bruges. But y'know... you kind of have to do it.

2. Bruges people... are possibly the nicest, kindest and most welcoming folk of any place I have been. Pretty much everyone we met, in hotels, shops and restaurants bent over backwards to make us feel welcome and comfortable. They also speak English fluently and with pleasure - and don't make you feel like a lumpen English fool for not speaking Flemish. Generally very lovely people.

3. The Chocolate Museum... I think this is the naffest, time-warpiest museum I've been to in years. It reminded me of one of those funny little museums that you get in minor seaside towns, where you peer into glass cases with random implements and tableaux involving '70s shop mannequins with copious blue eyeshadow dressed up as Victorians. It gets better at the end when a man demonstrates how they fill the chocolate moulds and you can buy various chocolate-related things in the shop.

4. Our hotel... was absolutely gorgeous! It's situated on one of the main canals and has amazing views and lovely historic features. If any of you plan to visit Bruges, I would firmly recommend getting the cheapest, dirtiest Eurostar seats on offer and splurging the saved money on a night or two in this hotel (http://www.relaisbourgondischcruyce.be/).

5. The Groeninge art gallery is partially closed at the moment for woodworm removal or something, which was vexing as we missed a few of the real highlights. However we did pop into the Arentshuis next door and saw several rooms of fantastic prints by Frank Brangwyn (http://www.frankbrangwyn.org/prints.html). I now want some for my house...

6. Eating out is a bit pricey in Bruges... maybe it's just because of the exchange rate, but it's certainly not like the old days when you could get a meal and decent wine for pretty much 1/2 the price of London. The menus don't vary much from place to place - they're big on fish, seafood and meat - not so hot on veggie food.

7. Bruges doesn't exactly specialise in shopping, but if you are in need of chocolate, lace or tapestries, you will be in heaven.

8. Did I mention that Bruges is really really pretty? And it has beer... and chocolate... and other nice things?

9. The architecture is varied. Some areas are very gothic in feel, with lots of redbrick and pointy towers, while other areas look a little like Amsterdam, with tall thin, multicoloured houses on either side of wide canals. Near the railway station is a little gated community of alms houses that you can visit in silence. Nice if you want to get away from noisy crowds for 15 mins.

10. If you go for a weekend, be prepared for heaving masses of tourists - and many things are closed on Mondays. However if you go midweek it is delightfully empty and you can get seats in pretty much any restaurant and don't have to queue for anything. The only down side is that nobody runs boat trips mid-week in winter. But DEFINITELY worth taking time off work for.

I should probably mention that we also spent 5 hours in Brussels before catching the Eurostar home. Not much to recommend.... lets just say we won't bother next time. I suspect on a summer evening I would feel differently, but in the freezing rain it was little short of grim. I could barely even be bothered to take pics... (well ok, it does have some pretty bits once you get past the bits that look like Sheffield.)

So anyway, enough about all that. Tomorrow I will post about chocolate.

Sleep well dear fiends.

Comments

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

lovely. too bolloxed to write oprper commrnt

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Thank you... hope your head is recovering :-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

You were righ... (and your tip re: sensible shoes was a god-send!)

[steer.livejournal.com]

If you go to the Grand Place area Brussels is lovely. The rest is not. For years I had only seen that bit so I could not see why everyone disliked it. Bruges is great.