Netherlands/Belgium Bike Tour Day 9: Brugge
Posted by Cassie, November 11th, 2009
Tuesday, September 19, 2009
Brugge is an amazing well-preserved medieval city. Brugge was an important center of trade during the Golden Age because it had direct access to the sea. However, when the channel to the sea silted up, Brugge was no longer a commercial center, and the city slept quietly until it was discovered by tourists. Now, the main industry is tourism. Brugge is a neat place to visit, but it is packed with hordes of tourists. As we walked into the city, we saw a parade of tour buses entering the city. We were there during September, and there were tons of people. I cannot imagine what it is like during the peak tourist season in the summer.
City gate
We climbed the Belfort tower, and the view was really neat. However, after climbing the church towers in the Netherlands, the Belfort tower was a disappointment for us. Unlike the Netherlands church towers, you were not able to be outside for the best view. Instead, you were inside the bell tower, and you could only look out the windows on each side. And, the windows had fencing over them obstructing your view. However, it was neat to be inside the bell tower when the bells rang on the half hour. It was really loud! The price for climbing the tower was also increased for all the tourist crowds. We only paid 3 euros to climb the towers in the Netherlands, and it was 8 euros to climb the tower in Brugge.
Canal with Belfort in background
View from Belfort tower
While in Belgium, it is mandatory to eat lots of Belgian chocolates! There are chocolate shops everywhere in Brugge, so it is easy to eat lots of chocolate. We stopped at The Chocolate Line, and the chocolates were delicious! My favorite was a white chocolate with a filling that tasted like rhubarb pie. We also went to the chocolate museum that traced the history of chocolate from ancient Mayans and Aztecs to modern Europe. However, they did not give any chocolate samples until you had gone through the entire museum getting hungry reading all about chocolate. I was expecting there to be more samples of chocolate in the museum. If I designed a chocolate museum, there would be chocolate samples everywhere!
Creepy chocolate statue that is eating itself at the chocolate museum
We also went on a boat tour along the canals. There are parts of the city that you can only see from the canals, and it was neat to go underneath the old, stone bridges over the canal. The guide for our boat tour was awesome! He had a perfectly-styled curly handlebar mustache. I had seen mustaches like that in the movies, but it was awesome to actually see one in person. 🙂 Belgium has so many languages that our guide had to give the tour in Dutch (Flemish), French, and English. It amazing they can get anything done with so many different languages.
Oldest bridge over the canal
Pretty gabled houses along canal
Swans swimming in the canal
Print
