Wednesday 11 June 2025
Bruges - or Brugge in Flemish - was our second stop on the holiday. Again, we'd picked accommodation smack beside a canal (our hotel is the first building on the right below). This one had pretty ornate decor but a dodgy coffee machine and the room safe wasn't secured to the wall (not much point of it then?).
Wednesday evening was for strolling around orientating ourselves and we headed east from the centre. Bruges is a UNESCO world heritage city, no doubt earning that title due to a savvy planning policy in the late 19th century that restricted development within the city centre to mirror the existing architectural style. Many original Gothic buildings have been retained and, along with other authentic dwellings of period style, give the city a homogeneous architectural feel.
A lot of Ave Marias were installed on the corners of buildings.
We found the 4 surviving windmills on the eastern edge, and Kruispoort (Cross Gate), one of the four remaining gates surrounding the city.
Thursday 12 June 2025
As I often do in a new city, I like to get up high to get a feel for the place. The place to do this was the Belfort (Belfry). 366 steps up a narrow stairway is always my idea of fun.
It contained a carillon which activated the bells - as the drum rotated, the pegs triggered a pulley which struck the bells above. Each quarter of the hour is accompanied by a different tune and every year they change the complete repertoire by moving the pegs on the drum. [Or I think that was the Ghent carillon, but you get the drift].
And, as you can't hear the bells on the clip above, here are the sweet bells.
The views were great! And that's the way to Luxembourg, 296 km away.
Before climbing Belfort, we had bought a Musea Brugge card giving us access to up to 12 museums. So we had to make the most of it as I hate not to use my museum allowance.
We explored the Gruuthusemuseum which had been the residence of Louis (or Lodewijk) van Gruuthuse in the 15th century, when Brugge was a buzzing commercial centre. It showcases life in that period, for those who had the money.
And they'd left a wig or two.
Then it was off to Burg Square where we spotted the Basilica of the Holy Blood was open.
Inside it's classic Gothic, with the addition of a long queue of catholics/tourists keen to have a quick glimpse of the holy blood. Call me a sceptic, but I wasn't convinced it was worth the wait. The Romanesque chapel downstairs was more pleasant.
We were following one of the Brugge city trails of sorts, but also veering off to find interesting sites as they cropped up. It really is such a beautiful city.
We jostled through a crowd of tourists - they conveniently congregated in a region no more than a few hundred metres from the main drag - and wandered down to Oud Sint-Janshospitaal, St John's hospital.
We also found the local beer pipe which, at 3 km, is probably one of the longest pipes from brewery to the bottling factory. It keeps the beer production in the heart of the city, but the tankers that distribute it can now remain beyond the city moat.
No beer for now, but a stroll down to Minnewaterpark (Lake of the Love Park) which was created to stop the city flooding. In the Middle Ages the waterway was part of the city's docks, but it was blocked to control the flow of water into the city, and the reservoir formed.
A very pleasant stroll towards the southerly edge of the city. And that was Thursday.
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