In Bruges

“Joli:” beautiful

The next day, (Saturday 4/17), we hopped on a 40 minute train to Bruges. I fell in love with the city the moment we started walking through it, and after having just seen the movie In Bruges, it really is like a fairytale city. It is filled with canals weaving around the cobblestone streets lined with old, Renaissance architecture. The town is not very big, with a population of only 117,000, we were able to walk most of it. From the train station, we ventured up through a park to the Beguinage, which is the grounds of a convent that previously held the nuns, Beguins, who were women who dedicated their lives to God, however, they made lace in order to make money. Today, there are no more beguins left, but nuns still live there. It contains whitewashed buildings all surrounding an open garden full of flowers and very tall tress. It was a very peaceful area to walk through, with signs along the sidewalks requesting silence. We left as soon as a huge tour group came marching through.

We zigzagged through the streets, stopping at interesting sights, up to the Markt square, (why they omit the “e” in Flemish, I do not know). This square contains the Belfort, which is the tall clock tower, the Town Hall, a church, and many little cafés. We found a lunch spot to, of course, have beer and food. I then proceeded to climb the 366 steps of the bell tower, hoping to emulate the experience the characters in the movie experienced (sans getting murdered). The steps were steep and wind-y and crowded, and I even lost my mom along the way to a bit of claustrophobia, so I was alone to see the marvels of the overhead view of the city. When I finally reached the top, slightly out of breath, I was a bit dismayed to see that three-fourths of the bell tower was closed due to renovation, including a cage around the actual bell, plus caged-fencing where you look out. It was a bit of a “wah-wahhhh” moment, but I can now say I climbed it anyway.

I made my parents walk about 20 minutes west to see the windmills on the edge of town as well as one of the four original “gates” into the town. We were fortunate to have lovely weather. As we were now far from the train station to get back to Brussels, my dad was trying to figure out how to get back by taxi or bus, but I insisted we walk along the river taking us back. “When will you ever get to walk 30 minutes along a river in Belgium??” That we did. It was quite a pleasant saunter, though we were glad to have a sit on the train back!

That night, back in Brussels, we decided to find some Swiss-fondue, because I had seen it in Bruges and could not get the idea out of my head. It was delicious; we had cheese and fondue bourguinonne (which is the hot oil you cook little pieces of beef in). After dinner we went back to the hotel lounge bar to have an after dinner cocktail and ponder how and if my parents would be able to fly home the next day because of the Icelandic volcano.