The drive to Brugges, Belgium was pretty boring- felt like we were just driving through Illinois. We arrive at Hotel Albert- which I would HIGHLY recommend- and there is some festival right across from the hotel! We dropped off our luggage and ran over there and had our first taste of wonderful belgium beer! Then there were probably 50 or more tents, so we decide to go look at those...and it was all tents selling cheese and providing free samples! Does it get any better than being welcomed with beer and cheese?!!?
We then went to dinner at a random place we found that was wonderful- Gran Kaffee de Passage. I tried Waterzooi, which was the local specialty and basically was like a chicken stew. We finished it off with a Belgian Waffle for dessert- our first of many!
We walked around a bit after dinner and stopped for a drink at an outdoor cafe that had a lovely view of the canal and belltower. We then found down what looked like a deserted alley, the best place ever 't Beer Bruges (which I later saw that Rick Steves had recommended!). It was a cozy pub with TONS of beer-- we sat with an older couple Bill and Diane from Scotland and chatted with them all evening- very nice people. We finally headed home a little before 11pm to go to bed....so I'd say we definitely didn't have any jetlag issues cause was so much fun!
On Monday we awoke around 8:30am and had breakfast downstairs at the hotel- included in our price. It seemed like a typical European breakfast which was fresh breads, cheeses, meats, and fruits. We then got started on our Rick Steves walk of Brugges and we packed in SO much stuff!
On our way to start the tour, we stumbled across Sint Salvatorkathedraal and we were in awe as it was the first European church we had seen, which was so different and bigger than in the US. We then went to the Market Square which was the town center and just filled with beautiful old, gothic buildings and restaurants. There was a belltower (366 steps) that we climbed for a great view-- and for whatever reason Dustin became determined to climb all belforts we encountered!
We then went to Burg Square, which was just another area like a town center and went to a few things here. We visited City Hall which was built around 1400 and had some phenomenal wall paintings in there. We also went to the Basilica of the Holy Blood which was built in 1150 to house some drops of Christ's blood that someone had brought back from Jerusalem. You could have paid to see some container that the vial of blood is put in and paraded around town on certain days...but we did not do that-- and the blood was kept in some closed room, so you didn't even get to see that. This pic was from a room in City Hall:
We stopped at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and asked to go in their basement where you can see ruins from a fort to protect the flemish people from 900 A.D. and then a church from 950-- Then they also had some display cases with pieces of pottery and such that they had found.
We grabbed lunch at Casa Potata which was 8 Euro for half chicken and fries-- enough for us to share and it was DELICIOUS! I went a little overboard eating the chicken skin cause was seasoned so tasty! After lunch we did a canal ride that was beautiful and a great way to see some parts of the town we hadn't made it to yet.
Next up was Church of our Lady which has a Madonna and Child by Michelangelo- the only one of his pieces to leave Italy in his lifetime.
We then went to the Halve Maan Brewery tour which was very interesting- our tour guide was quite humorous and included a beer in their courtyard at the end of the tour, so well worth the 4.50 Euro to do this! We met a nice couple here from the states who had just been to Paris, so they kindly gave us all their metro tickets they had left so we could use!
After beer, what sounded better than chocolates! He went to Dumon, which Rick described as Bruges' creamiest and smoothest- Madame Dumon and her 2 children make them fresh each day. I only bought 4 pieces cause just figured it would taste like any other chocolate, but man oh man, THIS WAS FREAKIN FANTASTIC!!!!
We then went to a Beginhof which is where religious women live, but don't take the same vows as a nun. It was pretty and peaceful, but Dustin felt like we were invading their space and we quickly left. I think he was just wanting to get to the beer store which I promised we could do at the end of the day. This store was called Good2Be and had tons of beer...where I even found a whole line called Timmerman's, which I was very excited for despite the fact that it is spelled slightly different than my former last name. They had a few beers on draft, so we sampled one of those and sat on their patio overlooking the canal.
We changed for dinner, had a nice meal outside- stew again for Dustin and I had a chicken dish...both very tasty! We then walked around to try to find a nice place for drinks, but unfortunately it started to rain on us and we couldn't find any happening places! So we hated to go to the same place twice, but went back to our fave 'T Beer Bruges again and stayed out until Midnight!
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