The iconic belltower was a short walk from our fairly cheap hotel
Early morning canal view. Get up early before the tourists arrive by the busload!
Belfry silhouette
Stunted trees
Cafe life
The best preserved medieval town in Europe
"I've never come this way before." "Must be the cobbles."
Called the 'Venice of the North', the city has an extremely well preserved old town centre with plenty of canals. Somehow both WW1 and WW2 left Bruges intact.
Touring by boat on the canals
If you have seen the film, you'll be pleased to know that this fellow really exists
Most buildings are brick, but this is a rare wooden number
Looking back to the Belfry
Cat ornament
Old hospital, now a museum
Impressive number of bridges
Unimpressed by bridge
Canal by the big tall pointy church
The fish market (obviously)
One of the iconic views
Flemish stepped roof facades have been popular for the past few hundred years...
The Kon Astridpark
Building details
Fancier tour boats than ours
Mmmm, turrets. I just love turrets.
Where Belgian lace comes from. Well, it probably comes from China now.
Gruuthuse museum
Gruuthuseing
Ze Belfort at night with the post office at left in Markt Square
There's that scene again, this time after many beers. I'm surprised this shot is in focus
Burg Square
Mmmmmm. Belgian waffles
Badly stitched view from the Belfry
The well-worn Belfry staircase
Next morning we went on a boat ride out to Damme, one of the tiny towns on the canal that leads to the sea
Old church at Damme. Not sure if the birds were holding that formation especially for me
Damme locals. Such witty captions.
Now that is well signposted
Duck standoff
Stone grinding wheels inside the restored windmill
Snapped lounging by the side of the canal through the boat window on the way back. Very stylish these Europeans.
Old canal boats, now houses
I wish my house had turrets
At the aptly named Cambrius ('King of Beers') bar which has 400 of the 800 Belgian beers on tap. And remember that Belgium is about the size of the Petone Esplanade. This is the telephone directory sized list of available beers, sorted by name, type, alcohol content etc. We went to Bruges with our neighbours Nancy and Steven. He getting glares from her after (for a joke) ordering the most potent beer on the menu at about 13%, only to see it arrive in a 750ml bottle with a 35 Euro price tag. I don't much like beer, but managed to survive on the Lambic beers and the fruity flavoured ones -all they needed was a cocktail umbrella. Each brewery has its own style of glass too.
Gent/Ghent is really nice day trip too. I would show you more if the little Panasonic camera we had with us hadn't run out of batteries... Skip Brussels except for the Grand Palace. Not bad for a long weekend eh?