FIRST TOUR BY EUROPE II PART: BRUGGE

BRUGGES

Brugges is a city of fairy tale, very romantic and very nice. The best way of know it, is lost yourself through the streets, the channels and the squares. The rythm of the city is quiet, pacely and you can eat an ice-cream, a creppe or fried chips (typical Belgian and very good) or drink a coke while you see the people walking and you breath and smile. All the entire city is like a dream.

Is not expensive. You find prices of all kinds, you can choose if eat cheap or more expensive, without need that it's too expensive. Yo can eat very good with a not bad price. The belgian gastronomy is very good and you can find all tipes of food: seafood like mussels, fried chips, meat, salmon, salads,...And of course the desserts and the chocolate. The Swiss chocolate is very good, but for me, the Belgian one is the best.

The city is very good prepared for the tourism, and you won't have any problem to find the Tourism Office, where they will attend you of the best way and they will give you a map for that your visit and the tour across the streets be easier.

How to move by Brugges?? of course walking, but also a good way is in carriage, which you will can rent in many places. I ignore the prices because we didn't do it. Another way to see the city is by a little ship. The trip takes a half hour more or less and the price is 6 € by person. Is very romantic. If you are far from the old town, I suposse the best way to arrive is by bus or tramcar, but it's better you get information because our hotel was in the old town.

A very curious thing is that there is a lot of people, specially in the shops and restaurants that speak Spanish and there are a lot of posters where it's written it.

What you can not miss when you visit Brugges: all. Really all the city is fantastic. Breath it, smell it, taste it, savor it and enjoy it.

If you are thinking in visit Brugges in a few time, I recommend you see the film "In Brugges", led by Collin Farrell. For me the film was well, maybe you don't like it but only to see the city it's worth while, because it's filmed entire there and you'll can have a good vision of what will you find when you go there.

 

 

Enjoy it.

8TH AUGUST 2007

We start our way towards Brugges. We change of city and of country; this time Belgium. I rains and Paris disappears in the distance. It seems that the city cries because it doesn’t want that we leave.  It rains cat and dogs during all the time. In less than three hours we are in Brugge. It doesn’t rain but is cloudy. We go directly to the Ibis hotel that is just at the begining of the old town, as says our book of the Accord Hotels. We park in a public parking next to the hotel and we ask in the hotel if is there any room for us. We have luck. We installed ourselves, eat something and we sleep for one houre, since the city is little and you can see it in only an evening.

We start to walk by Katelijnestraat, the street where is the hotel. Through this street there is a lot of little shops and candy stores, the speciality of Belgium. The Belgian chocolate is one of the bests of the world, if not the best. There are a lot of posters in which we can read that they speak Spanish. We buy some delicious candies and souvenirs: of course, I buy some postal cards for my collection, and Javi the Brugges team’s scarg, also for his collection. We do the firsts photos.

We go to the Tourism Office so they give us a map and they tell us what to see. There are some museums, the Halles bell tower, which you can go up and  some churches. We decided to lose yourselves through the city. In fact is the best way to know the city. The sun starts to shine. A while after we arrive to the Markt Platz, the principal square , with some oficial buildings, is possible to visit some one of them. I see a sandwichs stand very a very good face and I buy one of salmon. I eat it quietly in the square, enjoing the moment and the precious place while Javi does more and more photos. 

We keep walking and we find a little pier with little boats to make a trip by the channels. The cost is 6 €, are we to waste the chance of  sail through the channels of this magic city?? No way, so we make the little queue and wait for the next little board, that comes quickly. There is a recording with some explanations in several languaes but Spanish. It’s anecdothic bearing in mind that a lot of people speaks Spanish, but anyway it doesn’t matter because of the noise of the engine is impossible to listening something.

In that moment we have already fall in love in Brugge. It’s amazing, beautiful, we are without breath. We look the ancient houses, some of them are from 1600 and we do a lot of photos, millions, which will be perfect for our screen fund. After 30 minutes more or less, the trip is over, but not our trip through the city. We arrive to a park which is the Beatary Church, framed in a nice place. 

After walking a lot and cover the visit of the entire Brugge, it becomes night. We can’t miss the city at night, with the channels and the illuminated buildings. We have a shower in the hotel and we go out to have dinner. After 4 days eating in Quick, McDonald’s, Turkish fast food and bread with sausages, it’s time to have a good meal.Después de mucho caminar y unas cuantos miles de fotos después, se hace de noche. We get into a very nice and romantic restaurant and we have a very beautiful and special dinner with the light of the candles and the night in Brugge. To drink, we see in the menu that there is sangria and we taste it; is not bad but it’s very different off the sangrias here in Spain. Then, we take a round and we do the lasts photos.

We come back to the hotel to sleep. Our next destination is Amsterdam, where we stay the next two days. We put the Ibis in Amsterdam adress in our XXI century compass and we start to dream. 

In fact we haven’t stop dreaming since we departured from home but we must keep doing. We love this charming city and we hope to come back some day.