Day Trip to Bruges
We spent this week in Belgium; we stayed in Brussels and took a day trip to Bruges. Our time in Belgium has been unsurprisingly characterized by chocolate tours and waffle consumption, but to avoid redundancy in dedicating another post to food, I’ll focus on our trip to Bruges.
Bruges is a lovely medieval city located on the coast, making it an important historical port city. It is characterized by its canals, cathedral, and its unique architectural style. It was indeed quite beautiful, with its meandering cobblestone streets lined with quaint shops and cafes. Unfortunately, it has become a bit of a tourist trap, so there were far more people around than you would have expected. Some of the highlighting attractions in the city are the horse and carriage tours, the canal boat tour, the swan “lake,” and the Onze Lieve Vrouw (Church of Our Lady) which houses Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child. We ended up taking the canal boat tour, which gave a short preview into the history of Bruges and gave us an idea of what attractions we wanted to see further. It was interesting to learn about the role Bruges played in the economy of Europe in the middle ages, as it was a pretty important trading city. The different industries that were particularly important there were the leather making industry and the fishing industry. Still today, you can see what remains of the enormous fish market that used to dominate the central square. It was also interesting to see the distinct Bruges architecture, specifically the “step façade” style. We also saw a hotel that still had some original venetian glass in the windows, which was impressive.
After the boat tour, we wandered into a little weekend flea market where local artisans and shop owners were selling their goods. The most interesting booth there was showcasing the work of a local toy maker. There was a whole collection of handmade wooden toys, ranging from tops and pencils to wooden daggers and toy crossbows. They were exceptionally well-made and impressive to look at, not to mention fun to play with. After the market, we wandered along the canal and just enjoyed the nice weather and beautiful city. Finally, we ended the day in a tearoom, where we treated ourselves to afternoon tea and sweets. Being sick of chocolate and waffles, we opted for French macaroons instead. It was a relaxing way to finish a nice excursion day.
Our trip to Bruges was just one of many day trips we’ve done, but it was one of my favorites simply by virtue of the fact that it was totally free and very relaxing. As we come closer to the end of the trip, it seems that the stress is increasing as well, so it was nice to take a day of rest and just enjoy ourselves however we wanted.
