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Bruges is not as pretty a city as Ghent, which came as something of a surprise. Granted it's picturesque, with beautiful Dutch-style buildings and languid waterways, but there are an awful lot of tourists and the main square, simply called Markt, is a little underwhelming. Dodging the bicycles became something of an irritation and things were not aided by the fact that nearly all of the sights closed at 5pm, giving us less than an hour to see all of them. We dodged the Torture Museum and contented ourselves with seeing what we could, a pleasure on a rather pleasant sunny autumnal day, but with last opening times half an hour before closing and a hefty walk from the main railway station to the city centre, we couldn't do an awful lot. We did manage to pop inside Heilig-Bloedbasiliek just off Burg, a stunning coloured chapel which supposedly contains a phial inside which is some of Christ's blood. It's hidden by an ostentacious silver tabernacle that technically you weren't allowed to photograph but I did as I didn't see the signs. We also entered in the middle of a Eucharist which somewhat threw me, meaning we didn't get chance to spend as much time in this perfectly formed space as we wanted. Still, we did get to see the adjacent museum which had a number of exhibits relating to the church, with the highlight being the jewel-encrusted reliquary upon which the phial is mounted for the famous Ascention Day Parade.
We entered the church shortly after realising that we had just missed, by a matter of seconds, last entry into the Stadhuis. Built in 1420, the facade is incredibly fancy, consisting of varied coloured masonry not to mention statues of the counts and countesses of Flanders. There is an astonishing hall which we really wanted to see but alas we had just timed out. With little else to do, we wandered around the perfectly formed Berg before heading back to Markt, which is one block to the west. En route, I noticed that there was a straightforward virtual cache to pick up in the narrowest alleyway in the city, De Garre, which enabled me to secure the Belgium souvenir. Feeling pleased, we headed back to Markt to check out the towering 83m belfry, the Belfort, a symbol of Bruges and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was pretty, but not as imposing as I would have thought, and the huge area that the square occupied made the buildings a little less impresive. It was certainly more open than Grand Place in Brussels, making it less secluded and to me less striking because of it, with the gay pride and other flags on flagpoles giving it more of a gaudy edge. Tucked behind Markt was the smaller more perfectly formed Eiermarkt, where there were a number of people sitting enjoying a beer in the sun, while back on Markt we noticed a large number of people taking horse-drawn carriages while dressed in period costume. This was something quite strange and we wondered whether it was some sort of custom, with our answer coming pretty soon after we had left Eiermarkt, heading north on a random ramble.
Walking up Kuipersstraat and looking to our right, we noticed a huge throng of people, so we decided to check out what was going on. As we approached, we noticed that there were some beer stalls and were stopped by a delightful local couple in their Fifties who told us it was free. The thought of someone giving away free beer in Britain is somewhat unheard of - after all, would you trust the Brits to drink responsibly - but indeed it was true and soon we had a plastic beaker full of local tipple Brugse Zot. Returning back to the couple, they explained that the free beer and the costumes were all to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Koninklijke Stadsschouwburg theatre, which had opened that very weekend in 1869. The free beer was a one afternoon only thing and we had such serendipity to catch it, while the period costume was to recreate the very first performance at the theatre, of The Three Muskateers. People had really made the effort with matching the elegant clothing of the period, not to mention some of the more eccentric facial hair too, with the horse drawn carriages a real nod to the era as well. People congregating on the balcony of the theatre or on the red carpet outside really added to the scene, while our new friends told us all of the good things to see and do in their city. It was again one of those real highlights of travel and put a real smile on my face and indeed I did feel quite a wrench when we had to leave once we had finished our beer (we had literally caught the tail end of it and they were packing up).
While another beer was certainly tempting, I wanted to make the most of the daylight, so we headed north and east, into the old industrial part of the town called the St Anna District. This was no less pretty than the city centre, with its winding canals and towering narrow houses, but it was largely desolate, with very few people there at all. Following the guidebook, we decided to see the remnants of the city's lace industry, although again all of the museums and bars en route were closed. We did get to see the windmills though, which still grind cereals into flour to this day. There are four remaining in the city, and we managed to see two of them, perched on top of earthen hills with the Dutch flag adorning the blades. I walked up to the structures to catch a closer view while Wolfie sat at the bottom, before the two of us headed to Kruispoort, a fortified gate that once formed part of the city wall. It was quite a pleasant stroll through this area, and I enjoyed getting lost in the narrow residential alleyways, even if they didn't offer an awful lot to see. I did feel we got to see a little more of local life though, even stopping in a local bar called t ' Terrastje at the end of our walk to sample another tasty Belgian tipple.
It was 7pm by the time we had done this, so we decided to try and find some food, only to discover that there was a recommended bar not too far from where we were. This was very near the birthday theatre and was an underground cellar with 120 beers on its menu. Known as 't Poatersgat or the Monk's Hole, the range of Trappist beers in particular was strong and I would have happily stayed in its dark yet airy environs for longer than the half hour we did. However, we did need to get some food before catching the 21:58 train back to Brussels, so after a swift Belgian beer, we headed out and followed the guidebook's advice. Alas, pioneers of beer cuisine Den Dyjver were inexplicably closed, which was an irritation as the restaurant was situated on our route back to the station. However, this proved to be the second piece of luck that day as we decided to walk the ten minutes away from the railway line to visit a restaurant that took our fancy. Called 't Ganzespel, or the Goose Game, this restaurant is only open on weekends and the intimate feel was resemblant of someone's front room. There must have only been about nine tables and a similar number of items on the menu, which is always a sign that a place is good. There was a simple starter of soup, which we got regardless, and the rich flavour of it boded well for the mains. We had ordered steak, cooked blue, mine in a cheese sauce and it was one of the most succulent and exquisite pieces of meat I had ever had. It also came with the most delicious salad, with creamy carrots which had such velvety flavour. It turned out that the meal also came with fries, which had been forgotten about until we were halfway through, but the waitress did say we might as well have them as they had already been cooked. Crispy and golden, these too were wonderous and ultimately this was one of the best dining experiences of my life. It was so good.
With the clock running down to the train, they also kindly sped up the payment process for us, only for me to forget my souvenir Brugse Zot cup in the restaurant once we had left. I had to run back for it, noticing it had been cleared away and was now part of the washing up, but at least I had it. The waitress was really friendly about it all and soon we were on our way to catch our train, only for me to mess up the navigation and force us along a rather lengthy detour. Still, it did enable us to see some other parts of the city and although it was something of a yomp, we did manage to get to the station a full twelve minutes ahead of schedule. With the train being on time, this gave us more than enough time to find the platform as we didn't want to catch the very final train of the day at 23:23. Once we had boarded the train, I pretty much fell asleep, waking up groggy an hour later back in the capital. I wasn't really feeling up for it, but Wolfie wanted a few beers so I agreed to head to a few bars on the condition that we took the cups and our guidebooks back to the hotel first. This is what we did and after a brief freshen up, we hit the town shortly before midnight with the intent of trying some more Belgian beer.
We entered the church shortly after realising that we had just missed, by a matter of seconds, last entry into the Stadhuis. Built in 1420, the facade is incredibly fancy, consisting of varied coloured masonry not to mention statues of the counts and countesses of Flanders. There is an astonishing hall which we really wanted to see but alas we had just timed out. With little else to do, we wandered around the perfectly formed Berg before heading back to Markt, which is one block to the west. En route, I noticed that there was a straightforward virtual cache to pick up in the narrowest alleyway in the city, De Garre, which enabled me to secure the Belgium souvenir. Feeling pleased, we headed back to Markt to check out the towering 83m belfry, the Belfort, a symbol of Bruges and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was pretty, but not as imposing as I would have thought, and the huge area that the square occupied made the buildings a little less impresive. It was certainly more open than Grand Place in Brussels, making it less secluded and to me less striking because of it, with the gay pride and other flags on flagpoles giving it more of a gaudy edge. Tucked behind Markt was the smaller more perfectly formed Eiermarkt, where there were a number of people sitting enjoying a beer in the sun, while back on Markt we noticed a large number of people taking horse-drawn carriages while dressed in period costume. This was something quite strange and we wondered whether it was some sort of custom, with our answer coming pretty soon after we had left Eiermarkt, heading north on a random ramble.
Walking up Kuipersstraat and looking to our right, we noticed a huge throng of people, so we decided to check out what was going on. As we approached, we noticed that there were some beer stalls and were stopped by a delightful local couple in their Fifties who told us it was free. The thought of someone giving away free beer in Britain is somewhat unheard of - after all, would you trust the Brits to drink responsibly - but indeed it was true and soon we had a plastic beaker full of local tipple Brugse Zot. Returning back to the couple, they explained that the free beer and the costumes were all to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Koninklijke Stadsschouwburg theatre, which had opened that very weekend in 1869. The free beer was a one afternoon only thing and we had such serendipity to catch it, while the period costume was to recreate the very first performance at the theatre, of The Three Muskateers. People had really made the effort with matching the elegant clothing of the period, not to mention some of the more eccentric facial hair too, with the horse drawn carriages a real nod to the era as well. People congregating on the balcony of the theatre or on the red carpet outside really added to the scene, while our new friends told us all of the good things to see and do in their city. It was again one of those real highlights of travel and put a real smile on my face and indeed I did feel quite a wrench when we had to leave once we had finished our beer (we had literally caught the tail end of it and they were packing up).
While another beer was certainly tempting, I wanted to make the most of the daylight, so we headed north and east, into the old industrial part of the town called the St Anna District. This was no less pretty than the city centre, with its winding canals and towering narrow houses, but it was largely desolate, with very few people there at all. Following the guidebook, we decided to see the remnants of the city's lace industry, although again all of the museums and bars en route were closed. We did get to see the windmills though, which still grind cereals into flour to this day. There are four remaining in the city, and we managed to see two of them, perched on top of earthen hills with the Dutch flag adorning the blades. I walked up to the structures to catch a closer view while Wolfie sat at the bottom, before the two of us headed to Kruispoort, a fortified gate that once formed part of the city wall. It was quite a pleasant stroll through this area, and I enjoyed getting lost in the narrow residential alleyways, even if they didn't offer an awful lot to see. I did feel we got to see a little more of local life though, even stopping in a local bar called t ' Terrastje at the end of our walk to sample another tasty Belgian tipple.
It was 7pm by the time we had done this, so we decided to try and find some food, only to discover that there was a recommended bar not too far from where we were. This was very near the birthday theatre and was an underground cellar with 120 beers on its menu. Known as 't Poatersgat or the Monk's Hole, the range of Trappist beers in particular was strong and I would have happily stayed in its dark yet airy environs for longer than the half hour we did. However, we did need to get some food before catching the 21:58 train back to Brussels, so after a swift Belgian beer, we headed out and followed the guidebook's advice. Alas, pioneers of beer cuisine Den Dyjver were inexplicably closed, which was an irritation as the restaurant was situated on our route back to the station. However, this proved to be the second piece of luck that day as we decided to walk the ten minutes away from the railway line to visit a restaurant that took our fancy. Called 't Ganzespel, or the Goose Game, this restaurant is only open on weekends and the intimate feel was resemblant of someone's front room. There must have only been about nine tables and a similar number of items on the menu, which is always a sign that a place is good. There was a simple starter of soup, which we got regardless, and the rich flavour of it boded well for the mains. We had ordered steak, cooked blue, mine in a cheese sauce and it was one of the most succulent and exquisite pieces of meat I had ever had. It also came with the most delicious salad, with creamy carrots which had such velvety flavour. It turned out that the meal also came with fries, which had been forgotten about until we were halfway through, but the waitress did say we might as well have them as they had already been cooked. Crispy and golden, these too were wonderous and ultimately this was one of the best dining experiences of my life. It was so good.
With the clock running down to the train, they also kindly sped up the payment process for us, only for me to forget my souvenir Brugse Zot cup in the restaurant once we had left. I had to run back for it, noticing it had been cleared away and was now part of the washing up, but at least I had it. The waitress was really friendly about it all and soon we were on our way to catch our train, only for me to mess up the navigation and force us along a rather lengthy detour. Still, it did enable us to see some other parts of the city and although it was something of a yomp, we did manage to get to the station a full twelve minutes ahead of schedule. With the train being on time, this gave us more than enough time to find the platform as we didn't want to catch the very final train of the day at 23:23. Once we had boarded the train, I pretty much fell asleep, waking up groggy an hour later back in the capital. I wasn't really feeling up for it, but Wolfie wanted a few beers so I agreed to head to a few bars on the condition that we took the cups and our guidebooks back to the hotel first. This is what we did and after a brief freshen up, we hit the town shortly before midnight with the intent of trying some more Belgian beer.
