I’m writing this from a little café in town
(on day 9). We’re staying in the European
parliament/admin/diplomatic district and the café’s around us are all closed on
Saturdays. We’re trying to have a slow
day today so a leisurely breakfast in a café with wifi is the go for this
morning. Here’s yesterdays entry, and
sometime later today I’ll do todays.
~ ~ ~
Day 8
Remember all
those Catalonians who were at Gare Centrale last night when our train came in
from Ghent – well they all went to Brugge today! The station was swarming with yellow scarves,
flags, balloons, hats and raincoats when we got off our train so rather than
heading straight into the centre of town we took the ring-road path and headed
for the Ezelpoort. One of the entry
gates in the original ramparts that protected the town of Brugge in the 1300’s
it now sits at the end of a beautiful stretch of canal, complete with the world famous (so they tell us) Brugge swans.
The
Christmas Market in the old Markt was chock-a-block with tourists and the selection
of stalls was pretty limited – lots of stalls selling the same kind of stuff –
funny hats, mulled wine, scarves & socks and lots of food. The skating rink
in the middle was blaring out Elvis’ Blue Suede Shoes!
We chose not
to climb the 366 steps up the Belfort – I’m sure the view from the top would be
spectacular but we had enough steep narrow stairs yesterday and in Amsterdam.
Brugge is surrounded by canals, and has several more meandering their way through the town - its incredibly picturesque even in winter with the trees bare of foliage.
I imagine
Brugge gets really crowded in peak tourist season but it was insane today. We just wandered and tried to soak up the
sites. The range of buildings is
incredible, all different styles – not even going to attempt to describe them –
you can just look at the pics.
Belgium is famous for beers and I couldn't resist taking this picture - its for you Mark!
St Salvitors
Cathedral was gorgeous .. but you all know I love religious architecture. When they were doing some rennos a few years
ago they came across some 14th century graves – check out the
painting on the walls.
We’d got
some ‘graupel’ (snow pellets) earlier in the day, the temp was dropping and the
wind was whipping round every corner so we called it a day and headed back to
the station (before the Catalonians) and back to Brussels. Rather than do the uphill trek back to the
apartment we decided to stay in town for dinner and make the walk only
once. We stopped at the Grand Place to
watch the lightshow on the amazing buildings (and I’ve uploaded the little video
to FB) before a pair of foot-weary travellers headed home.
Today
(Saturday) will be an easy day and tomorrow we’re off to Amiens on the 8.17
Thalys.
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