... And in the Morning, I'm Makin' Waffles
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
22
33
Trip End
Oct 10, 2008
Brugge,
West Flanders,
Belgium
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
We started our walk by heading for Markt square, which is the main square in the centre of the old city. It is quite stunning to walk into the square and see the enormous Belfort (Bell tower) and the array of gabled houses lining the square. You may remember I mentioned the gables houses of Amsterdam, well the Belgians have their own unique style of gabling which is stepped like a flight of stairs. It is on so many of the old buildings and it has such an impact on the skyline of the city.
Gabled houses in Brugge
The Markt Square itself is quite touristy with lots of restaurants advertising their tourist menus and a gathering of horses and carriages waiting to take people on guided tours of the city. Nearby is another slightly smaller square called Burg. It is home to the impressive Stadhuis (Town Hall). We did a tour inside and were treated to an interesting display of artworks and a view of the magnificent gold Gothic Hall, where the city council meets. The old city of Brugge is all within walking distance and is surrounded by rampart walls dotted with old windmills in some parts. We walked around much of it and were quite impressed to discover even more windmills, ones that you could walk right up to without having to pay an admission fee. We continued to get ourselves lost in the tiny cobbled streets and around almost every corner was another camera-worthy view. The city has a series of canals running through it which adds to its appeal, even through I don't think I'd like to fall out of one of the boats into that water. I suspect it doesn't get much turn-over with the tides as it is quite stagnant in places. It was great to be wandering along and hear the clip-clop of horse's hooves on the cobblestones behind you. It gave it a much more old-fashioned feel, even though it was so obviously all put on for the tourists. Some of the cobbles have even been worn down along the streets where the horses walk from so many journeys along the same route
Belgian chocolate. Yum!
. We stumbled onto so many churches on our walk, most of which were much the same, although one did stand out as it was home to the very famous Michaelangelo statue of the Madonna and Child. Apparently it was one of only a few of his works to leave Italy during his lifetime and is displayed here in The Church of Our Lady. We were amazed, not just by the spectacular artwork, but also by the fact that they charge you about 8 Euro to see the statue of David in Florence, yet you can walk in and see this one as many times as you want for free.
After a lunch of fantastic fresh broodjes (sandwiches) of ham, egg and cheese, we again felt the need to climb something. We headed up the 366 steps of the Belfort to find ourselves with not only a magnificent view of the city, but a very loud rendition of Greensleeves by the enormous bells at the top of the tower. It was so loud we couldn't even hear ourselves if we yelled over the top of it.
We decided it would be un-Belgian of us to come to Belgium and not visit a brewery to sample the local beer. Although there are between 700-800 beers in Belgium, only one brewery stills brews in Brugge itself. The Half Moon Brewery is family run for 6 generations and takes you on a tour through its facilities. They still brew beer there every day and we helped to make space for the next days brewing by finishing off a couple of glasses for them at the end of the tour. Matt liked the dark beer, despite its 7.5 percent alcohol content, whereas I preferred the blonde beer.
The lady at the brewery told us never to drink the same Belgian beer twice as then you will never get to try them all
Belfort in Markt Square
. We took this on board and headed out to find ourselves some new types of beer to try. I am still quite taken by the Lambic beers, or fruit beers, which don't actually even taste like beer. I tried cherry, raspberry and strawberry, all of which are very sweet but delicious. I lost track of how many different ones Matt tried, but probably the most memorable was Kwak which comes served in a miniature yard glass in a wooden stand. It really is all in the presentation. We chose a little restaurant near our hotel, more by a process of elimination as everything else was shut on a rainy Sunday night. The food was pretty appalling except for the waffles with chocolate sauce which almost made up for it. We finished the night by tasting some of the Belgian chocolates we had hand picked earlier in the day from an enormous selection at one of the chocolatiers in town. We had picked a small box for 4 Euro thinking that would be enough of a taste for us. She somehow managed to cram 17 enormous chocolates into this tiny box which we were most pleased about. They were all divine, better than any chocolate I have ever tasted. The Belgians really do know a thing or two about beer, chocolate and waffles. This may actually be what heaven is really like.....
