The weekend was quite the adventure – and jam-packed full of activity per our usual trips!
We left for Bruges in the morning with one connection in Antwerp. We were supposed to have 20 minutes but our train was late (the bridge was up somewhere along our trip and we had to wait for that) so we were definitely moving fast trying to catch our connection – and we caught it! We definitely had luck on our side. We arrived in Bruges, took a bus to Market Square and then walked the couple of blocks to our hostel, Charlie Rockets.
Let me elaborate on the hostel a little bit (unfortunately, I don’t know what I was thinking, I didn’t take ANY pictures of the hostel). We walked into the bar area and got our keys there. We got our room key and were told we could go up to our room – so off we went. The walls/floor/everything in the hallways were painted green. And not a regular/normal green – NEON green. It was ridiculously bright. We got to our room – it way alright – nothing spectacular but it was a hostel room. 4 beds but luckily nobody else joined us. We were expecting there to be lockers. No lockers. That sucked since Rick Steves did tell us they had lockers. The bathroom and shower definitely was lacking. The second day I didn’t even shower in the morning and instead waited until we got to Brussels because it was rather – lacking.
Anyway. We dropped our bags off and went to Market Square for food and the Rick Steves City Walk.
First, we walked around Market Square – there were a bunch of booths set up around an ice skating rink – most of them had alcohol or food – so we partook in the foot – some delicious potatoes, cheese, wine, bacon, with lots of spices.
And we also had our first experience with Belgian Fries (with mayo as the sauce of course).
Around Market Square we saw gabled buildings and the bell tower. Also a statue of Jan Bridel and Pieter de Coninc, friends who were able to identify potential French spies by demanding they repeat two words – schild en vreind (shield and friend) – that only Flemish locals could pronounce.
We just looked at the Bell Tower from here – no tour. From here we headed to Burg Square which is considered Bruges historical birthplace. Many different types of architecture in this square from the Basilica of the Holy Blood (Romanesque), City Hall (Gothic),
Old Recorder’s House (Renaissance), Provost’s House (17th century Baroque). It’s awesome to see all these different buildings when you do a 360 in the square. From here we headed to Crowne Plaza Hotel. A pretty bizarre place for Rick Steves to include on his tour :) After asking at reception we headed down to see the archaeological site – ruins of the fort and the church that used to be at this location. We saw the original brick walls, oak pilings, and a lot of stuff found in the town water hole including dice, coins, keys, thimbles, and Delftware.
We then headed back to Burg Square and down Blinde Ezelstraat – name means “Blind Donkey Street”. In medieval times, the donkeys, carrying fish from the North Sea on their backs, were stopped here so that their owners could put blinders on them. Otherwise, the donkeys wouldn’t cross the water between the city and the fish market. Midway down the street there is an original iron hinge from the city’s south gate.
A few more stops (Fish Market, Huidevettersplein-headquarters of town’s skinners and tanners) until we got to the “Postcard Canal View”. It is a very pretty view – and you can clearly see the Bell Tower and it’s tilt – about 4 feet but it hasn’t moved since 1740.
Next we headed to the Church of Our Lady where we saw the only Michelangelo outside of Italy, Madonna and Child (1504).
By this time we had walked past SO many chocolate shops we decided it was time to finally eat some – and boy was it worth it – ABSOLUTELY delicious (Dumon Chocolates).
We continued on our walk past the De Halve Mann Brewery Tour and to Minnewater (“Water of Love”)
and Begijnhof.
Both very beautiful.
We definitely were tired for water and decided it was time for beer – after a long debate – or rather long indecision we went to L’Estaminet (RS recommended). We each had a tasty beer here.
Dinner time – we went to The Flemish Pot – because RS told us that there would be a “fries maiden”. Completely disappointing – the food was good – although a little spendy but 1.) we got no fries and 2.) we were expecting someone walking around – tossing fries – nothing like that happened (at least not when we were there!)
Then…we wandered. It was so early and we didn’t know what to do! We walked past a store we would return to the next day (to buy Nativity scenes) and went into a bar called Druid’s Cellar for another drink.
We were both tired and trying to come up with “exciting” conversation to keep us alive and awake was hard to come by :) So we headed back to the hostel and went to sleep.
Getting up the next morning we incorrectly trusted my crap no time telling watch. We both were awake but my watch said it was something like 3 am so we tried to go back to sleep – a few hours later Kat looked at her camera time (cause this is the only way we knew for sure what time it was) and we discovered it was 8 (or something “late” like that) so we got up and showered in the icky shower room and headed out for another day in Bruges. Here's a truck Kat saw that looked a little .... phallic to her!
Today was museum day so we bought our pass and saw the Groeninge Museum, the back of The Church of Our Lady,
the Memling Museum and the inside of the city hall. We also bought more chocolates (as we had already finished a box)
and went on the De Halve Maan Brewery Tour.
Time for more food – so we got a Belgian Waffle (with chocolate and powdered sugar)
and then again some fries with mayo at the other stand in Market Square.
When buying our Nativity scenes the friendly store owners suggested we do dinner at a place called Beethoven – good meal listed on the outside of the restaurant so we were going to go eat there (although we did have to wait for it to open cause you can’t have an early dinner in Bruges). Before dinner we went for drinks at ‘t Brugs Beertje (or according to Kat the one that looked like Beetle Juice).
We each had two beers here and I was able to have a Kwak – so exciting!
We then headed to dinner where we had a nut mixture, tomato soup, steak, salad and fries and coffee (well, Kat had my coffee). It was good food but pretty horrible service. One couple even left the restaurant without paying and the waitress ran after them and then they argued loudly about it (they did end up paying).
Back to the hostel and to bed…what exciting lives we lead. The next morning we woke up, checked the time on Kat’s camera, decided not to shower until we got to Brussels and then attempted to leave the hostel. It was something like 7:45. It really wasn’t that early. And we were LOCKED in – really LOCKED in. We went down the set of stairs first that would take us near the front door. When we couldn’t get through we walked up and around and tried the other set. Still no go - but we could hear people on the other side so after a few minutes of knocking on the door they finally let us out so we could go catch a train….
Brussels to come in the next blog….
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