I arrived at my hostel without any problems and all checked in. I was very excited to try the “Hangover Pancakes” that were advertised; however, I discovered that their “pancake” actually meant “crepe.” I was sorely disappointed.
I sat down and took a good look at my map before heading off to …
1) Peek at the Hof Bladelin gardens where my map kindly suggested you “give your darling a kiss.” I had to knock on the door to be let in by the nuns that live there and was very surprised at how small the garden in the courtyard was, though it was quite cute.
2) Looked at the Belfry – Belfries are a big deal in Belgium….
3) Walked over to the Windmills to see what all the fuss was about and why it was a good place to “kiss” as indicated by the map. The windmills were cute and picturesque, but didn’t wow me.
4) Passed through The Chocolate Line. This Chocolatier gathered a large number of normal people (as opposed to models) and had them walk around naked in a large public square and … I believe the opera house – and covered them with liquid chocolate…
5) Drank a hot coco in a café.
6) Tried to eat at two traditional restaurants, but was so hungry and tired that I didn’t read carefully enough to see that one was only open on the weekends and the other was only open for lunch…
7) Ate in Café Vlissinghe. Yup, I ate dinner in the OLDEST bar in Bruges. It was opened in 1515.
Thursday, I met a lot of people at breakfast and hence stayed at breakfast for quite a while talking with other assistants and study abroad students. (Jill is from Austraila and studying abroad in Greece and Danielle is from Malibu, CA and studying abroad in Bordeau.) The day started with …
1) Danielle and me walking around and seeing the last bridge built in Bruges and the statue of a girl with whom Jacques Brel was in love at one time (Jacques Brel is a famous French singer of whom I have a CD and is in fact Belgian and not French). We also saw a pretty park and canal.
2) Danielle and me visiting the Holy Blood Chapel and seeing a vial that is filled with Jesus’ blood from when he was pierced with the Spear of Destiny on the Cross… (that may have been a little confused with information from the movie The Librarian)
Then I …
3) Visited the Volkskunde museum, where they had reproduced a number of little shops that you would have seen in the town in the middle ages. It was cute, but really made for school field trips it seemed.
4) Ate at Pas Partout. This is a local restaurant where the locals go to eat when they don’t have tons of money. So for a good price you can get the daily special and be in delicious food heaven. I’m not 100% what I ate, but it was the Dagshotel (plate of the day); it consisted of a potato and pumpkin mash(?) and a ball of meat that was so utterly delicious and it was all in one of the most flavorful sauces I’ve ever had….
5) Bought some souvenirs – chocolate from The Chocolate Line (oh so yummy) and a Delirium Tremens goblet from the super market…
6) Visited the Church of Our Lady where Michael Angelo’s Madonna is displayed.
7) Went on a walking tour from the hostel, which did not impress me since I apparently cover a lot of ground when I travel and could have almost done the tour myself if I had an hour to research a few things about Bruges. I did meet Jill during the tour though, so it was not a waste!
As the evening set in ...
8) Danielle and I walked around and I got some fries while we hunted for a good place to have dinner later. Danielle grabbed something to go, but I wanted to really go eat somewhere…
9) Jill and I went and ate at ‘T Risicos (risico is garlic in Dutch I believe). It was a very nice and cozy bar. We had a very nice little dinner and I had a Bruges Zot with my meal.
10) To finish of the day, we joined up with about 10 others from the hostel and went to two different bars – I left a little before everyone, but it was nice getting to talk with ppl of various backgrounds and interests.
Friday, check out was at 10am… the earliest I’ve ever had. But I got my backpack together and headed off to finish visiting Bruges…
1) I went to the Gruuthuse museum. Gruut is something they put in beer and was only sold from this one house, making the family very rich. When other beer ingredients were found, the family heavily taxed them. Amazingly, they let me leave me bag in a locker and come back for it later (I still had 3+ hours until my train).
2) I wandered over to the Bejuinhof, which is a convent. This is the most beautiful place in Bruges and is probably what makes Bruges, the Venice of the North. It was beautiful.
I had a good time in Bruges, but I’m not ready to say it was better than Ghent. It was a little too touristy for my taste, but that did mean there were a lot of young ppl traveling alone in the hostel to meet…
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