More Bruges (ok I've run out of inspiration)

Well, this was the first thing I saw today...I stll can't figure out how these guys thought they could get this pane of glass, in a huge wooden frame, through the window they were trying to fit it to. It just didn't fit- I stayed aroudn a while watching the free entertainment, and waiting for it to break, but sadly it didn't, it just reached a stalemate with the glaziers.

This is a godshuis...sort of like an almshouse, Belgian style. They are still all over Bruges, although not all as cute as this one.

Just behind the cathedral there's another quiet spot: it's amazing how like sheep most visitors are, they never go off course.
It's quite beautiful, with the canal, little gardens and sculptures, and old buildings like these. This sort of wooden building is how Bruges used to look...but unsurprisingly it all burned down, so this one is about all that's left. They aren't allowed now.

I went into the cathedral after that. There's a museum bit at the far end, which not many people pay to get into, but it has these incredible early medieval painted tombs.

Like all of Belgium, Bruges has an impressive square, well two squares, with a big tower, which gives great views. Nuff said :)

I thought I'd see some of the less-known bits, so I went North East, along the canal. Boules was just an added bonus! It's quiet, but scenic.

Eventually I reached the canal round the edge of the city (sort of a wet ring road: I guess it started as part of the city's defences), and found this windmill. Quite nice, but a bit noisy: there's a real ring road just outside the wet one.

I went along the cnal for a bit and then went back towards the centre. I was feeling a bit hungy, so when I found a sweet shop it seemed a good opportunity. It turned out the owner only spoke Flemish...well, she was about 80. Nice lady, and her daughter helped. They had a curious and unsanitary sweet procedure. You had to pick the sweets you wanted out of the jars, and put them in a not very clean looking plastic container. She was so nice I felt obliged to buy some anyway, as she rambled on I think about how if I was canadian I'd have been able to speak French or something.

Anyway, the sweets were bloody awful! I guess the moral is don't buy sweets from sweet shops in Bruges that look like they are as old as the cathedral.

I felt quite ill as the evening went on, and struggled to eat what should have been a very nice north african meal. I later found out I had a stinking, chesty cold, so I can't really blame the sweets.

For the evening, I walked through a park in the South of the city, where there was a free festival on. It wasn't up to much though, so I carried on South, toward the cinema that the nice lady at the theatre had told me about the previous night.

She had her directions spot on. Unfortunately she didn't have a clue about distances so I was walking for aaaaages....and aaaages...and aaaages....

When I eventually got there it was (again) a superb facility. I saw Ocean's 13, which was just ok.

Walking back...11pm on the outskirts of a belgiam city, in the dark, few streetlights...I took a "shortcut"...it wasn't...I walked back again...I did reach the hostel eventually.

written by

martin_b on June 30, 2007 from Brugge, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

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