We are heading to Bruges, the capital and the largest city of the West Flanders province in Belgium. It’s about one and a half hour drive from Antwerp!
We’ll cover this city on foot! We’ll park outside the city wall and enjoy walking! We left car on a Steenstrat heading the main square.
We are falling in love with it from the first minutes. It’s so charming and has a postcard-perfect medieval look!:)
It’s not a top season now, but it is crowded with tourists 🙂 So, I can imagine what’s happening here in summer 🙂
Probably the most touristic and occupied place is Markt. The main square at the heart of the city. It is a beautiful square surrounded on all sides by fine buildings, really great architecture, plus you can find here vast variety of cafes and restaurants.
This is a wonderful spot to begin your tour in Bruges.
Ohh, so beautiful gingerbread houses around!
Probably the most colorful old market square I’ve ever seen 🙂
One more thing you can do here is to get the best panoramic view over Bruges 🙂 But! You’ll need to climb the 366 steps up to the top of the tower. The 83 meter high belfry from 13th century is one of the three iconic towers of Bruges. Today, a carillon of 47 bells still hang on the tower. Bruges also has a city carillonneur (the dude who plays bells. 🙂 In the summer you can even enjoy special carillon concerts.
If you want a little bit of romance and old charm you are able to take a carriage for a horse-drawn ride around town.
Bruges is also called the Venice of the North and that’s why may be it a bit classic for tourist but the best way to explore Bruges is by boat ride on it’s web of canals! The journey lasts about 30 minutes. The only one minus, you will need to wait “a bit” if you wanna a ride 🙂 Look at this line on a bridge :(( Yeaaaahh, they all are waiting for a boat 😦 But it worth it!
Bruges canals are so fantastic! It’s no wonder Bruges is listed as one of the most romantic cities in Europe.
You feel yourself like in fairy tail 🙂 Cobbled alleys running alongside pretty canals.
Visiting Bruges is like stepping back into time.
Canals are so picturesque. Just get lost in a city and you will find a nice little detail in every corner.
Bruges is full of romantic spots and this one we liked the most – St. Bonifacius bridge. This small and cute bridge surrounded by typical Flemish houses you can find behind the Church of Our Lady.
The Church of Our Lady dates from the 13th century and is best known as being the home of Michelangelo’s marble Madonna with child. This statue attracts visitors from around the globe.
One more impressive square you must see is very close to Markt is the Burg with city hall, the early medieval Town Hall, a pearl of Flemish Gothic architecture.
The Burg is probably the best place in Bruges for lovers of architecture as the collection of buildings dotted around this square are all beautiful in their own way.
One more interesting and the oldest building in Bruges is the Sint-Jansspitaal (St. John’s Hospital), founded in the 12th century.
Off cause you can’t leave Bruges without drinking few pints of Belgian beer. Brugse Zot (the fools of Bruges) is very famous here 🙂 By the way, local cuisine and beer is top notch!
One more place that beer lovers don’t want to miss is so called The Beer Wall. The wall itself is located in a passageway that leads through the 15th century building. The wall tries to involve all the beers in Belgium 🙂
Each beer and it’s accompanying glass, is located in it’s own little special hole within a large shelving system. Try to find your’s favorite :)!
At the back of the passageway is an open-air courtyard and a bar leading to a terrace with a magical canal’s view.
If you are not a beer fan like me 🙂 You are welcome to try and get some traditional Belgium chocolate! By the way, you can find here an official guild of Bruges for chocolatiers that hand make their chocolates in Bruges itself 🙂 and you can get very very special chocolate tours in Bruges! Enjoy!
Sometimes it’s very hard for me to say goodbye to the city! Ohh, it’s this moment, Bruges is one of the cutest and romantics places I’ve ever visited.
Every house and corner of Bruges is so beautiful.
Bruges is really a nostalgic town at heart.
We are heading to Brussels, but let’s make a stop in one more city – Ghent! Just for a short night walk 🙂
The Gravensteen castle, like from fairy tale, is Ghent’s most important tourist attraction. The rooftop has stunning panoramic views over Ghent and you can visit the Arms Museum and the Museum of Judicial Objects inside.
Ghent also has this medieval charm like Bruges!
We have a perfect chance to enjoy the spectacular illumination of the city in the evening. Wonderful views in a lovely atmosphere.
Very cosy canal-side atmosphere, when the buildings are illuminated walking by the canals seems that you are inside a dream:)
It was a perfect evening walk! but Brussels is waiting for us 🙂
Finally, we are in Brussels at midnight! We met a dog Zinneke by accident on our way. He is the youngest member of Brussels’ peeing statue family 🙂 It’s not actually a pissing fountain, it is simply a bronze statue.
We’ll be ready to discover Brussels’ peeing statues tomorrow:)
Tomorrow will be new day and new emotions:)
See you tomorrow 🙂
The journey to be continued…
Don’t sit at home. Travel! Travel with me! 🙂 Meaww!
Next day…
Previous day…Day 1. Antwerp.
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