Bruges

With a full day ahead of us (and the journey from Paris to Belgium behind us), we decided to start the day off with a free walking tour from a company called The Legend of Bruges. Our tour guide, Simon, was excellent and kept us entertained with amazing stories, facts, and legends from the city of Bruges. One of the many legends he told us was about a tiny street called Blinde Ezelstraat (Blind Donkey Alley). The legend goes that when the neighboring city of Ghent (where we are heading tomorrow) was stealing Bruges famous Golden Dragon statue and had it placed on back of a donkey, the poor thing refused to take a step outside the main gate since it had never been outside the walls of Bruges. The soldiers tried and tried but the donkey just wouldn’t budge. So, they blinded his eyes using a candle so he could no longer see the city walls in order to get him to move. What a sad but wonderful story!

Along the tour, we came across The Begijnhof or the nun convent which provided surreal views of the homes where nuns used to live. The last nun left in 1920s and since then it has been home to a community of single poor women looking for a place to live. There are currently tree houses scattered around the area as part of a temporary city art display. They represent our youth, and the missing ladders represent our struggle to reach the youth inside us.

In Bruges, there are many canals and therefore bridge. And, on several of the bridges, we came along beautiful and magical views of swans peacefully swimming past medieval houses. It’s moments like these that you look back on that remind you why you travel.

The swans are part of another Bruges’ legend. It is said that Bruges captured Maximilian and made him watch as the town tortured and murdered his administrator Pieter Lanchals (long neck in English). As punishment, Maximilian required the town to keep long necks (swans) on their canals for all of eternity. That wasn’t a harsh enough punishment though so he also relocated all of the trading to another nearby town. This, of course, caused a massive decline in the economy, growth was halted, and is why Bruges is one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe.

After the walking tour, it was time to experience some authentic Belgian food, and we were told that Flemish Stew is as authentic as you can get. We went to a place known for this Belgian staple called Bierbrasserie Cambrinus and were very pleased. The stew consisted of a yummy sweet beer sauce with pieces of perfectly cooked melt-in-your-mouth beef serviced alongside apple sauce. It was like a better version of beef burgundy made with beer instead of wine.  What more, the dish was served with a side of frites which is pretty much the case when you order any entree in Belgium…what a superb idea! We washed down all of this with a glass of a cold Belgian blonde beer.

After some good eatin’, we decided to explore the canals of Bruges by going on a boat tour. Being right on the water gives you a whole different perspective of this wonderful town. The tour guide repeated all the information 3 times…in Flemish, French, and English which was an entertaining experience in itself.

We also learned about some of the spots where the movie In Bruges was filmed. For example, in the photo below, the building just above Ashley’s head was the hotel that Colin Farrell jumped out of.

And, speaking of the photo below, Bruges is one of the most romantic cities in the world. You will see people kissing everywhere, and tour guides will point out the best place to have kissy pictures taken.

After the boat tour, it was time for a treat. Have you ever had waffles? Of course you have! Do you know that they were invented in Belgium!?! Liege waffles (not to be confused with Brussels waffles) are dense, sticky, and bursting with flavor. Unlike its American counterpart, you don’t need to put any toppings as the waffles by themselves are sweet and delicious. Of course, the tourists don’t know that and overload the waffles with strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream so you can’t even taste the waffle itself. Do yourself a favor and get a plain one. In Bruges, you will typically only find Liege waffles, but if you do find a Brussels waffle (which are more rectangular w/ smooth edges), you might need some sugar or other toppings.

Pro tips on picking a good waffle shop: (1) Typically the cheaper waffles are better. The shops have to sell a LOT to make money, so they need to have good waffles. (2) Look for the super small shops. They don’t have the space to store pre-made and frozen waffles. (3) Make sure you see the shops actually cooking the waffles. Otherwise you might be eating a reheated frozen one which just isn’t as good.

Another Belgian delicacy is chocolates.  Yes…delicious melty super-fresh chocolate. There must be 30+ stores in this small town that sell every kind of chocolate you can dream of. They sell dark chocolates, light chocolates, milk chocolates, chocolates that are filled with beer, with pistachios, with every kind of berry imaginable,  and chocolates that are nothing but 100% cocoa. Every store sells based on the weight. The chocolates are made fresh every morning and the ones that don’t sell are thrown away (in the good stores). This ensures that no matter where you get your chocolate fix, you’ll get something that’s going to be better than anything that’s sold in grocery stores. We went to a store called Dumon and got a wonderful assortment.

Next, it was time to check out the only brewery that’s in the city center of Bruges called Halve Maan Brewery. Belgium has some crazy 200 breweries which is a lot for a country that’s just the size of Maryland. They take their beer making art very seriously and it was a fun experience to have a very tasty quadruple right at the source of where it was made.

All the beer got us wanting something to much on and then we remembered…frites! We went to a nearby place called Chez Vincent which makes all their fries with 100% vegetable oil. Belgian fries are fried twice which makes them distinctively crunchier than American ones. There were over 10 options for a sauce and we opted for curry mayo instead of the traditional plain Belgian mayo (which we had already tried twice). It was a perfect combination of hot crunchy carbs dipped in zesty sauce.

We walked around the city to burn off the calories and then it was time to check out another famous local bar called ‘t Brugs Beertje. The inside was very charming and old and felt very authentic. There was a thick binder with over 100 beer options. We opted for couple of the local draught beers and had a wonderful time discussing the day while taking it all in.