A Day in Bruges

Sunday brought another day of adventure in Belgium. With Luisa still sick, I set off to explore the streets of Bruges alone. Only a 20 minute train ride away, I made it there in no time to find that the tourist office was already closed for the day. Armed with my zoomed out google map and list of places to see, I walked to the city center to begin my explorations. The city center of Bruges is a world heritage site of UNESCO and looks like a medieval fairytale town filled with ornate buildings, cobbled streets, and canals. I began my adventure by climbing the belfry of Bruges, a medieval bell tower originally built in 1240. 366 stairs lead to the top, getting narrower and steeper at each level. 

  
It was definitely my workout for the day. The view at the top made it worthwhile though. You could see the entirety of the city splayed out below. 

   
 
From there I spent time wandering the cobbled streets, looking at buildings (and getting lost at times). 

   
   
I visited a few churches – the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which contains what is said to be a vial of Christ’s blood, and the Church of Our Lady which contains Michelangelo’s sculpture, Madonna and Child. 

  
After tons of walking, a boat tour through the canals was next on the agenda. The tour guide spoke 3 different languages – French, Dutch, and English – and we cruised along the canals, looking at buildings and bridges. It was nice to see the city from a different view, though the boat was jam packed with tourists all trying to take pictures of each sight. 

  
At the end of the canal sat Minnewater Lake, which means the “Lake of Love” and was quite picturesque. I didn’t want to ask one of the many couples to take a picture of me by it, so I settled with a selfie. 

   
 
Next up was one of the highlights of my day, the Beguinage. It was built in the 13th century to house women that devoted their lives to charitable work without taking any religious vows. Today it is the home of Benedictine nuns, and consists of a gorgeous courtyard full of yellow tulips and surrounded by whitewashed homes and a church. I decided to be brave and actually asked someone to take a picture of me – my only one of the day. 

   
   
From there, my stomach started to growl. Next stop, food! I stopped at one of the many chocolate shops and got a sampling of 6 different chocolates. Delicious. Next I went to the Markt at the center of the city (right where I started my day) to get a Belgian specialty from one of the food stalls outside the Belfry: fries with stoofvlees sauce. Delicious. 

  
Finally, after an unhealthy lunch, I had to try the final Belgian specialty: beer. Trusty travel blogs and trip advisor led me to a small pub down a vacant alleyway. It was called ‘t Brugs Beertje and the beer list contained over 300 beers. 

  
With my limited knowledge of beer, it was certainly overwhelming, but the bartender was incredibly helpful and knowledgable. I first settled on a Straffe Hendrik Brugs Tripel. I really know nothing of beer so I won’t even try to describe it. My second one was an Echt kriekenbier, which was a cherry lambic and also quite good. 

   
 
As I was sitting alone in a Belgian pub drinking beer, I had to take a step back to think about exactly where I was in the world. It struck me how bizarre and out of character something like this was for me. Somehow, an incredible set of circumstances and events had brought me throughout Asia and parts of Europe and had plopped me down on this tiny barstool. I had gained so much confidence in traveling alone and trying new things. In that moment a wave of gratitude and happiness surged within, and I couldn’t stop smiling the whole train ride back. I probably looked like some kind of crazy person and I promise it wasn’t the beer. What a wonderful day in Bruges.