Bruges, Brugges, Brugge...

A Year Ago Today:

March 18, 2009

Itinerary:

Wednesday, 3/18: Bruges

-Awake at 4:00 a.m., shower, finish packing, check out by 5:00 a.m.

-Train: 6:25am Paris Nord, France (Thalys 9307), arrive 7:47am Bruxelles Midi, Belgium (1 hour, 22 minutes) (18 minute transfer) 8:05am Bruxelles Midi, Belgium (Train 529), arrive 9:02am Brugge (57 minute): Ali and Autumn: Economy 2nd class youth tickets: $72.00 Charissa and Harmony reservations with pass (made in Paris): €26.00

-Walk to hostel, leave bags there: check in is at noon.

-Walk through Burg and Markt Squares (buy mangos at the market).

-Boat Tour through canals (€5.60 with Bruges hostel card)

-Belgian Fry Museum

-Chocolate Museum (€8.00 for both museums-student price. Lunch for the day).

-Climb the Belltower at Market Square (€5.60 with Bruges hostel card)

-Check in to Hostel, Rent bikes from hostel €6.00.

-Gruuthuse Museum - 15th c. mansion, merchant displays of furniture, tapestries, (€1.00 student price)

-Church of Our Lady (Michelangelo's Madonna and Child)

-Begijnhof courtyard - nunnery
-Janshuysmolen Windmill

-Return bikes to hostel, Harmony and Charissa grocery shopping for next few days: €9.00 each

-Dinner at Ristorante Adriatico Italiano €13.50

-Lodging: Snuffel Backpacker Hostel (breakfast and sheets included, no lockout, guest kitchen, laundry, grocery shop next door, includes Bruges card; 7 minute walk from the market, 25 minute walk from the train; four bed suite - includes shower and toilet - $23.57) http://www.snuffel.be/

Visiting Bruges, Belgium was like walking into a Fairytale. The city was once a thriving metropolis until the 18th century when the economy began to fail. It is one of the few cities that whose historical buildings were left largely untouched through the destructive bombings of World War II and therefore is one of the best preserved examples of a pre-motorized city. Because it is built around canals it is often called the "Venice of the North." Okay that was a little showing off about what I know about Bruges, but a little more than a year ago I didn't even know that Bruges existed! It actually was recommended to us by Ali's dad and after a little research, we felt that it was a necessary addition to our itinerary.

We got to experience Bruges through many different views: boat, tower, and bicycle. Here we are on our canal boat tour.

The fairytale is complete with swans!

These buildings remind me of a jigsaw puzzle. This is in one of the main squares.

And of course a visit to Bruges must mean a visit to the friet (fry) museum. Did you know that fries are not French at all? They originated in Belgium!

The best part of the Belgian fry museum? We ate the best fries of our life at the end! Seriously, they were Dee-licious!

But we couldn't stop there! With our tickets, we got a twofer price and headed on to the chocolate museum. We learned all about the history of chocolate there!

But again, the best part was the free sample at the end. :-)

We had to work off all that chocolate and fries, right? So we climbed a belltower. We climbed several throughout our European adventure and the bells rang loudly without fail, every time we were on top.

I believe this tower had 365 steps (and I only remember because it is the number of days in a year). We counted on our way up.

We also had a pretty great view of Bruges from the top!

We also enjoyed the Brugian atmosphere in the square.

This was our youth hostel: Snuffel. One of our traveling gnomes was named in tribute to this place. We're not sure what a snuffel really is though...

The cool thing about Snuffel was that we were able to rent bikes from them. I think there were more people riding bikes in Bruges than cars because of the narrow streets. Riding bikes was a fantastic way to see the city!

I think we had a few Von Trap moments while on our bikes too...

A lot of amazing buildings to see!

The rich people used to live here.

we had to...

Ali's Rapunzel moment.

Inside the cathedral:

More cool views of the city:

We had to stop at the nunnery...and take a moment to pray in the courtyard as good little nuns do...

And possibly the best part of the bikeride was that we got to go to the windmills which are on the outskirts of the city. Autumn took the opportunity to relax for a few moments with her book. Isn't this the coolest chain link fence you've ever seen?

This was our last evening together for the four of us so we decided to go out for a fancy Italian dinner. In the morning, Harmony and I were headed on to Geneva and Ali and Autumn back to Brussels. Ali loved this meal.

And I just loved that there was an amazing wishing well on a random street. Bruges truly was a fairytale land!!

**Thanks for following the adventure up til now. I am headed on a road trip to California for the next week so not sure what my internet availability will be. I'll try and continue the Europe chronicle, but please forgive me if they don't show up every day now!! I'll have lots of California adventures to tell you soon too!