Bruges in Pictures

(Fair warning: the videos in this post have a lot of cursing in them.)

Someone recently told us that they thought Bruges was beautiful but like a museum. We didn’t really know what they meant and had no preconceived notions about the town. (Well, not many, at least. All I ever think of when I hear “Bruges” is Colin Farrel’s thick Irish accent saying, “Bruges is a sh*thole” and Voldemort saying, “It’s a fairytale town, isn’t it? How’s a fairytale town not somebody’s f***ing thing?”

 (Sorry for the NSFW language but this movie is pretty funny and all the best quotes have many F-bombs.)

So aside from THIS  buddy bad guy action comedy, and the beer bar recommendations from my beer-snob brother, I didn’t really know what to expect.

I did NOT expect ketchup and mayonnaise to be slathered on my club sandwich.

Bruges is BEAUTIFUL. It *is* like a museum, full of old, gorgeous things that make your jaw drop at how old and gorgeous they are.

But then there’s not a whole heck of a lot to do.

Which is fine, because we’re pretty lazy and don’t really tourist the way others do. We walk around a lot, eat, drink, and try to talk to locals.

The first place we ended up after checking to our hostel. Charlie Rockets, a hostel bar where the bartender shrugged her shoulders when I asked how many languages she speaks. “I don’t know… four, I think? Five when I’m really angry.”

But usually, when we visit a place we clearly skip out on activities that others participate in (for example, we did not see the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomph, Sacré Coeur, Père Lachaise, les Champs Elysées, inside the Panthéon, the catacombs or the sewer tour in Paris, lol). But in Bruges, we didn’t really feel like we were missing out on anything.

You can buy chocolate. (There’s only one or two chocolate shops every five or ten feet.)

You can buy lace. And beer. And fries.

My first meal in town

A fry museum!!

Beer (supposedly the most delicious beer in the world!)

A lace map of the town.

You can look at old stuff.

And you can overpay for food that is quite good but not better than everything we had in Paris for half the price.

There are many swans and canals and adorable cobblestone streets.

There are beautiful old churches.

And there is the Belfry tower, probably the most well-known attraction and one thing EVERYONE does when they come to Bruges.

Well. We did not climb the 300+ steps in the Belfry tower. I wasn’t feeling so great, and I didn’t think climbing a bunch of windy narrow stairs would help. So we just looked at it and walked around the town some more.

We only spent 2 nights in town, arriving at 3 in the afternoon on a Sunday and leaving a few hours earlier than planned Tuesday morning. We’d seen enough and were ready to head to Holland! It was a lovely place, we had perfect weather, and we’re glad we saw it in person, but it was more expensive than I thought it would be (and coming out of Barcelona and Paris where we could eat and drink pretty cheaply, it was especially expensive-seeming) and I don’t think we’ll ever feel the burning need to return.

Have YOU been to Bruges? What was your favorite thing? Least favorite thing? Any strange experiences or unexpected observations?