Mirabel Hotel Brugge

... bikes needed to go back by now so we dropped them off then we went back to a place we had found in the restaurant book earlier that day. It was called Cambrinus, named after the ‘King of Beer’ and home to over 400 different types of beer. We had to give this a go!

We started with a couple of very good Belgian beers while we perused the extensive menu. I had a fruit one as believe it or not I am sometimes tiring of beer after all this beer drinking in Europe ...

... with a million photos. But this town is just amazing. The bulk of the business of the town is tourism, but if you stay off the main street and square it’s not so bad. I went looking for the sights I saw in the movie “In Bruges”. Decided not to climb the big tower as they wanted to charge me 8 Euro to climb about 600 steps. Um….I don’t think so. Tomorrow I’ll go to the Church of Our Lady where a famous ...

... cobbled streets, red shingled roofs, canals, and historic buildings.

We first walked to Bruge's cathedral, which was still great to see despite all the cathedrals that I’ve been to already. We then headed toward the main plaza along with the bunches of other tourists flocking around Bruges. On the way, we had our first truly Belgian experience: waffles. Needless to say, I was ridiculously excited, and my waffle-chocolate sauce ...

... beers on tap and then went yet again, to more chocolate shops. It seemed that there was one about every twenty feet or so and after not long I had had enough. So then we went to the Havle Mann Brewery and had a few of the famous Belgian beers. All in all, it was a great day and we had seen so much, and ate so much chocolate, but only seen a small portion of the city. We are determined to go back again and continue exploring.


Brugge, West Flanders, Belgium christineandal

... leave Brugge. We did redeem ourselves by climbing the Belfry which is a medieval tower which formerly housed a treasury and the municipal archives and served as an observation post for spotting fires and other dangers. It is 83 metres high and there are 366 steps up a narrow space-not for the faint hearted. The tower actually leans 1 metre to the east. Before we climbed, Katelyn had complained about the bells ringing constantly but we realised that that was ...

... We walked to the Church of our Lady which was built in the 13th century and is completely built in brick, in fact, it is the second highest brick building in the world. Its other claim to fame is that it contains a statue of Madonna and child by Michelangelo. In 1506 it was given to the church by a Brugge merchant. It is the only work by Michelangelo that was exported during his lifetime.

We then strolled ...

... to Amsterdam, Paris, Damme, etc. The way down was faster but I don’t know if it is worth the price. It costs €8 per person, not the €5 Rick Steves claimed in his 2009 book. With our hotel’s discount card we paid €6 each.

Next we wanted one last tourist stop in Bruges but got a little confused as to exactly what it would be. MB said he wanted to ...

... any. I meant to but our 5 hours in Belgium turned into 3.5 and I ran out of time and money. The Christmas markets were stupid. There weren't that many and there was next to nothing to buy. But the streets were filled with chocolate shops and lace shops. I bought some handmade truffles for myself. I've only had one but they are delicious! I had an amaretto one and I bought some champagne ones as well. I also had a chocolate waffle later that day. But ...

... hostel well outside the city centre, we trudged the back streets for ages and eventually found a small bar which was playing music, so John had a merry sing-along while the rest of us drank and continued feeling grumpy. We returned to the hostel just after 1.00, and so made do with another night of below four hours sleep. I also managed to pull the handle off the door of my room, but couldn't be ...