Our Belgium Adventure: Day One

We left our flat at 5:15 this morning to catch the bus to Waterloo to get the 6:10 Eurostar to Brussels. While we waited for the bus, we saw two foxes scamper across the quiet street--apparently there are quite a few urban foxes in our neighbourhood, but this was our first time seeing them so close to home. (I tried to take a photo of them, but they didn't sit still for very long.) Once again the Eurostar was unbelievably easy and convenient, and we arrived in Brussels at 9:40 local time, changed trains, and arrived in Brugge at 11:00, where a more typical animal sighting greeted us:

With cobbled streets covering the vast majority of this unbelievably picturesque town (a tangle of canals, narrow streets, medieval buildings, and faithful 19th-century reconstructions of medieval buildings), most of our time in Brugge was spent talking about how we felt like we were wandering around the set of an historic film (albeit one awash with chocolate). Brugge's Markt square was impressive,filled with people enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. We strolled away from the central squares and marvelled at the quaint streets that were positively everywhere (remember: movie-set). Many buildings proudly display dates that emphasize Brugge's age, (as if we could forget), a considerably younger Brugge resident peered out at us from his home,
and Brugge residents and tourists alike made excellent use of bicycles to get around the compact historic centre of town.
"Look, it's another charming street!" was our refrain for the day. Inside Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady), we peered at Michelangelo's Madonna and Child (1504-5), revered as the only work to be exported from Italy while Michelangelo was still alive.
The church's Rococo pulpit was also stunning:
Next up was a canalboat ride--terribly touristy, but equally fun!
Here's the boat ahead of us:
And off we went on our tranquil half-hour ride . . .








Back on (cobbled) land, we wandered around some more, and as Bob kept saying as we walked, the whole tone of Brugge was incredibly relaxing. Of course, there were plenty of tourists around, but we found that if we just moved a few streets away from the guidebook sights, we were utterly alone in this fairytale town.
The ambiance of café culture was around every second turn and the distinct lack of cars meant the loudest noises were usually those of people chatting at masses of outdoor tables. Swans, the unofficial symbol of Brugge, were also everywhere, in real-life and represented in various sculptures and decorations on houses. Here's a sample of the tourist throngs we saw in Brugge--definitely bearable in April, but we both wondered just how crazy the crowds must get at the height of summer.
The clip-clop of hooves on cobbled pavement served as background music for the day and in the more popular parts of town, horses and carriages passed by every five minutes! Here are some horses taking a much-needed break:
Our canalboat tour passed along this stretch of water and it was equally scenic from the land: Many interesting sculptures dot the Brugge landscape, but this one was especially unique with the swan's nest directly behind:
Perhaps the most beautiful and peaceful place we saw today was the Begijnhof, an enclosure containing a church and a ring of houses with the ethos of a self-sufficient town. Once inhabited by Begijnen (religious communities of women, similar to nuns, who were not obliged to take vows of poverty and who worked together to remain independent and contribute to the community as a whole), and still the residence of Benedictine nuns, many begijnhoven remain throughout Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) and Brugge's is said to be one of the best-preserved. Even without the historical background, the Begijnhof was an indescribably poetic place,one that this artist was doing a fine job of capturing.
Bob and I popped into a grocery store to pick up some picnic ingredients, including some delicious chocolate-covered speculoos (thin, crunchy cookies with gingerbread-like spicing--a Flanders specialty):

We decided that we could live with this view and imagined how lovely it would be if this picnic table and patio were ours!
We wandered around, gazing at buildings and people as we walked,
and I decided that "den gouden appel" was the best doorknob I've ever seen.
After more clip-clopping,
we wandered into a Godshuis, a type of Flemish almshouse originally built by wealthy families or businesses to house the needy, and now part of the Department of Social Care, mostly for use as housing for the elderly.
The Godshuizen we walked into were beautiful, serene places. As we walked around town, we noticed at least a dozen different houses that had beautiful stained-glass images of Brugge in their windows,
and any time we came across a canal, we following it for as long as we could.
Small religion icons were often set into housefronts, and every street was full of new surprises.
After all our walking, it was definitely time for a coffee break. I ordered a mocha, and was delighted when I got a chocolate egg for melting into a rich espresso, a kind of do-it-yourself mocha! By now the light had started to fade (along with the hordes of daytripping tourists), and Brugge began to take on an even more serene mood:


We walked around for a few hours in the dark, marvelling at the views and the utter silence all around us.


Finally, we returned to our bed and breakfast, located in a 17th-century home, lovingly restored by an artist and his wife, who (along with their daughter) live on the lower two floors, while the three B&B roooms occupy the top floor. Here's our room on the left, with the two lit windows:
Our hosts kindly ensured that our return "home" was as atmospheric as our time walking around Brugge: various lights guided us as we wound our way up the flights of pretty stairs:



Along with the three en-suite rooms, the top floor housed the lovely breakfast space, communal fridge (filled with drinks available to buy for reasonable prices on the honour system), and free snacks.

Not only did our B&B have wonderful hospitality, a perfect location, and a very reasonable price, our room was perfect--oozing comfort, space, and character.

After getting up at 4:30 this morning and spending most of the day walking around in the 20'C sunshine, by midnight we were more than ready to fall asleep in our comfy bed in our lovely room in impossibly pretty Brugge.