Brugge - Day trip to Damme

cycling to Damme from Brugge

d road to Damme was beautiful! u can see trees, grass, wild flowers, n little houses along d canal n of cos beautiful reflections of d clear blue sky!! the ride was mostly enjoyable, except for d swarm of flies on n off annoying me.

little houses along the canal (cycling to Damme)

a nice spot to sit n chat or do nothing!

Damme's known for their pancakes so how could we miss out on that!! we started looking for a nice cafe/restaurant to have pancakes once we got there (ard 2pm). as we were looking at d menu at 1 of d cafes, this cute boy came out n started speaking to us in English. we decided on this restaurant n sat outside d patio so we can be in d sun (unbelievable i know! in Singapore we usually run away from d sun!!). d young boy say he will inform us when he is making d pancake so we can see how he makes it. we decided to move indoor as some roadwork was going on n it was quite noisy. we went in just in time to see him making d pancakes. his quick moves tells us that he is an old hand at that. i ordered a pancake with ice cream n some kind of sweet alcohol. d ice cream was wrapped in d pancake and with alcohol poured on it. d pancake was flaming when it's served so it looked really cool! it tasted really yummy too!

pancake maker at Damme

flaming pancake! can u see d flame?

we headed off after d pancake cos we wanted to try to visit a museum b4 it closes at 5pm. we didnt manage to make it to any museum cos we were distracted along d way by sceneries n other stuff. we ended up doing a canal tour instead. we were d 1st to board the boat but it filled up really quickly. at 1 point i was thinking if more ppl came on board we would sink!! we didnt of cos... (that was juz my drama queen moment).

during canal tour

juz another building

d canal cruise is a really nice way to see d little town. with explanation of buildings n people, it made u appreciated the history of d town more. of cos by now i couldnt remember much except that in the earlier centuries (13th - 15th), u know how rich a family is by the windows of their houses. they had something called Window Tax. the more windows a house has, d more tax to pay. n if the owner has no money to pay d taxes, the government will seal up a window. that is why some of these old houses have windows that's sealed up. another i remembered is that Belgium has more than 250 different beers. to a non beer-drinker like me, there's only 2 kinds: d nice 1 and d not nice 1... i'm sure a true beer drinker will say otherwise...

that aside, d canal cruise was really nice. we went to Begijnhof after the cruise. d Begijnhof is a quiet area where d Benedictine Sisters stay. d compound has a huge daffodil garden, which makes Begijnhof a hot romantic spot. i really enjoyed d peace n quiet there. we went into d church n d Sisters were all there doing their prayers. we left d church pretty quickly and d prayers were over shortly after. we saw all all of them walking off to a particular house. there's isn't many of them now, about a dozen n they r really old. they smiled at us as they walked pass us. they look like very nice grand mothers u want to have.

Daffidols & trees!

before we head home, we had dinner at this Italian restaurant near where we stay. d restaurant seems to be run by true italians. most of them have a tummy and look like they came off the Godfather movies! d pizza is really nice! thin crust n generous amount of toppings!! that's what i call a good pizza!

written by  wangyng on April 8, 2008 from Brugge, Belgium
from the travel blog: Hello Europe!!
tagged Belgium, Brugge and Damme
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