Bruges
A romantic weekend trip to check out beautiful Bruges
Days at a Glance
| Date | Day at a Glance |
|---|---|
| Fri, 07Jul23 | Walking tour, Haalve Maan brewery tour, moules and frites |
| Sat, 08Jul23 | Bell tower, Basilica of the Holy Blood, Gruuthusemuseum, Groeningemuseum |
| Sun, 09Jul23 | 3.5 hr train ride home |
High-Low-Hero-Chow/Ciao*
| Ben | Maggie | |
|---|---|---|
| High | Watching In Bruges movie afterwards | Groeningemuseum |
| Low | Amount of sugar in that diet soda | Maisy waking us up at 1:30AM with firework anxiety |
| Hero | Maisy's behavior on the train | Musea Brugge Card |
| Chow/Ciao | Maisy for most future trips | Belgian waffles from "Laurence Take-Away" |
*A game I learned from Ben, who uses it with friends as a fun way to reflect on an experience
Journal
Friday 07Jul23
For our first full weekend away since moving here, we picked Bruges: a romantic destination only a train ride away. Ben took off Friday so we wouldn't feel too rushed. We left Friday morning and took a 3.5 hour train to Bruges; Maisy did fine and enjoyed looking out the window.
Ben picked us a budget Ibis near the train station, learning from our Antwerp experience. We dropped our bags and headed out to the city center with Maisy. Ben led us through most parts of the self-guided Rick Steve's walking tour. It was absolutely lovely, the city was so beautiful with the blooming flowers, old bridges, and charming canals. We started in the market square, and Ben's silky voice guided us through the main sites, providing history and context.
We got ~75% of the way through and then headed to drop Maisy at the hotel, having sufficiently tired her out. Ben, also sufficiently tired out, took a 15 minute power nap before we headed to a brewery tour I had booked at 16:30.
The Haalve Maan brewery tour was great! Our guide was an older gentleman who had clearly given the tour hundreds of times and had it down. We learned about the brewing process, checked out the underground beer pipeline connecting the fresh beer to the bottling facility 3km away, and enjoyed a view of the city from the top of the building. After the tour we enjoyed a "complimentary" beer at their terrace. I tried the blond and Ben tried the dubbel, both delicious.
After the brewery we got dinner at a restaurant across the street. I had a chicken sandwich and Ben had moules and frites. While he enjoyed half of my sandwich, I couldn't necessarily help him out with half of the moules. They're good, they're just not my thing... This time, Ben tried the trippel and I had the dubbel.
After dinner we walked around a bit more, enjoying the lack of crowds and small side streets. We got a dessert waffle from a small waffle shop called "Laurence take away." The waffle batter was so thick it looked like bread dough going into the waffle iron. Topped with homemade chocolate sauce and whipped cream, it was outstanding. We enjoyed it while sitting on a bench looking at the water next to an old water tower. Powered from our waffle, we explored more, walking far enough away that we could sense we were out of tourist central and where local people lived, which was nice to see.
It was a long walk home and we fell asleep quickly. Maisy woke us up around 1:30AM trying to burrow under our covers to escape from the firework noise from a nearby music festival. Our comforting did little to aid her, so we eventually ended up tying her up so she could only be on the foot of our bed. The joys of traveling with your dog!
Saturday 08Jul23
We woke up and game planned our day, purchasing the museum passes for 25 euros and getting timed entries for the bell tower, Museum of the Church of our lady, Gruusthusemuseum, and the Groeningemuseum. We took Maisy for a morning walk, stopping for me to grab a sandwich and pastry from the nearby Carrefour so we could have a quick breakfast in Minnewater park. We dropped her off at the hotel and headed into the city to finish the remaining 25% of the walking tour, including going into buildings we couldn't have entered with a dog before, like the Begijnhof church.
One of the weirder churches was the Basilica of the Holy Blood. The basement was a dark and eery chapel built in the 1100s, and the upper part was the highly decorated "Chapel of the Holy Blood." It contains a relic that claims to be blood from Christ when his dead body was washed. The vial was brought to Bruges sometime around the 1200s. According to legend, the dried blood would re-liquefy, although the last time this miracle occurred was 1388. While we could see the outer-container of the vial, we couldn't see the blood itself, which is only displayed from 2-4. We decided being close to it was good enough...
We got another waffle from Laurence take-away, this time keeping it simple with just powdered sugar to let the waffle flavor shine. It was delicious with coffee!
We climbed the bell tower during our assigned time slot from 13.00-13.20. The views were spectacular, and we appreciated the breeze on the hot day! We plugged our ears while the bells played a small ditty.
Next was the Church of Our Lady. The church's white walls felt very bright and simple compared to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. The accompanying museum was nice, where we enjoyed a Michelangelo statue of Mary with baby Jesus (from a far distance!)
The Gruusthusemuseum was up next, and this was honestly pretty lame. No cool art and very little interesting exhibits, although Ben got a laugh out of the "Act Like a Lady" portion, considering I was not currently working...We skimmed it and left early to take a break and eat some frites before our last timed ticket of the day, the Groeningemuseum at 14.45.
The Groeningemuseum was fantastic. We really enjoyed the art selection, and it felt like a manageable amount (of course, we had Rick Steve's guidance to make sure we didn't skip anything important!) I enjoyed the Jan van Eyck's, and we both spent a long time looking at Jheronimus Bosch's Last Judgment. It's displayed in a way where you can really get close and take in all the little details, as creepy as they are! We both really enjoyed the museum.
After a busy day of sight-seeing, we meandered back to the hotel, purchasing a post-card and some art for our new walls on our way back. (I ended up forgetting the art work at the hotel and paying for them to ship it to us in Den Bosch...) We relaxed a bit in the hotel before deciding what we should do for dinner.
After our epic moules and frites from yesterday, we were both craving something a little simpler. I ended up just ordering some Domino's (with goat cheese, how European!) and grabbing a salad and soda at the Carrefour. We picked up the pizza on our walk with Maisy to the nearby Minnewater park, where we enjoyed a canal view while we ate. The conversation started with Ben, somewhat judgmentally in my opinion, asking if we'd let our kids drink soda, and we just ended up talking for hours, it was really relaxing and lovely.
After dinner, we dropped Maisy back at the hotel and went to check out the other side of the city, across the train tracks. This was definitely not touristy, felt more residential, and we even got to witness a chippy game of pick-up soccer. We grabbed a few magnums at a convenience store on our way back, adding another Magnum to my review list (white chocolate strawberry: 7.5/10). Not wanting to end the night, we ended up at a nice fountain near our hotel and just sat and chatted for at least another hour. Moving abroad has made us both more introspective, which gave us plenty to talk about. It was a lovely night.
Sunday 09Jul23
We woke up planning to train to the beach, but it was not quite as hot as we hoped. We thought about sticking around in Bruges a bit longer, but we had done everything we wanted to yesterday, and we realized we could make an Epic mixer in Utrecht if we left early enough, so we packed up. I grabbed to-go sandiwches from Carrefour and a coffee in the train station and we trained home.
We both really loved Bruges, it was a really nice weekend away. We agreed that it felt more charming and romantic, but also noticeably more touristy than Antwerp. It also had the best Belgian waffle I've ever had.
We also learned some valuable practical information about weekends away. Traveling with Maisy is fun, largely because the juxtaposition of an ugly rat like her in charming Europe is hilarious, but it does limit your flexibility. Hotels near the train station work great. And mainly, that if we're okay having a busy weekend, Ben does not need to take Friday off, so he can save his vacation days. For the purpose of what we want to accomplish, seeing a new city and understanding the vibes, a weekend is sufficient.
Fun side note, we watched the movie In Bruges a few days later. So good! We loved it and had fun recognizing all the scenery. There's even a scene where Colin's character stares at the Last Judgment just like we did!
For the Record
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Arrival | Train, morning of Friday 07Jul24 |
| Departure | Train, morning of Sunday 09Jul24 |
| Accomodation | Ibis Budget Hotel, Marie Popelinplantsoen |
| Maisy | Along for the ride! |
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