Bruges

This was our last stop on our trip but it quickly made it to our favorite. The city center is beautiful, it is compact and easy to walk everywhere, the canals only enhance the beauty, and it gave a small town feel with big town amenities.

We stayed in a super large room overlooking a canal. We really enjoyed eating breakfast while looking out on the peaceful canal and street below.

On our first day we at at Moana Pokebowls. A food we had been missing and were excited to have again. Then we explored the city center, enjoyed a sweet treat at House of Waffles, and took a free walking tour. The tour was great and gave us lots of good ideas for our next day.

We started our first full day in Bruges by getting a free but timed entry ticket to the Belfry of Bruges then we headed to a canal tour at Bruges River Cruises. The cruise through the camels was very relaxing with a nice narration of the different spots of interest along the way.

After the tour it was time for our climb of the 366 stairs at the Belfry. Luckily there were stops along the climb which made it feel like less work. The stairs got more and more narrow as we reached the top and passing people going down became more difficult.

We were able to see the bells do their thing at the 45 mark and on the hour. It was really neat to watch the biggest bell drum in the world play Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Our next stop was lunch at Sanseveria Bagelson a super delicious but small bagel shop. We continued our exploration of the city center at the Church of our Lady where we did the tour, learned about the church history, the tombs, and were able to see one of the few Michelangelo statues outside of Italy.

We headed back to our room to rest a bit. Then ended our day with some more city exploration and a delicious pasta dinner at Brasserie Forestiere. Then we explored outside of the city center and viewed the quiet side streets and homes. It seemed like a wonderfully peacefully place to live.

Our host was happy to hold our bags for the day so we could explore her town more. Our first stop was the Historium Bruges. It was so much fun. It started with a virtual reality ride through the city during medieval times, then a walk through 7 rooms and you followed the story of two young people and the *** painting. Then there was a small museum with more information. It was well worth the cost and a lot of fun for us.

We did some shopping, stoped at Sebrechtspark, and had lunch at Craenenburg. Unfortunately it was getting late and we had to pick up our bags to head to Brussels as our flight left the next day. Bruges is on the super short list of cities we could see ourselves living in. We can’t wait till our next trip to explore more amazing places like this.