Brussels and Bruges: Belgium in a Blur - part 2

And on to Bruges (or Brugge)! I think I liked Bruges better than Brussels, but probably because Brussels is a bigger city, and therefore has all the annoyances of a big city. But either way, Bruges was beautiful. Canals and bridges and stuff, and an awesome historic city center that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I would print off a list of those and cross off the ones I've seen...but it is a pretty long list.

so while French was more prevalent in Brussels, Bruges is in the area called Flanders, so Dutch is more prevalent. Dutch is similar enough to German for me to kind of know what the signs say. 

My hotel was pretty cool, not quite in the city center, but I had to walk past a cool old bridge to get to the city center, so it was kind of better.

The Cathedral St. Saviour

A sculpture outside the cathedral.

Haha, it says "Cafedraal." As in a cafe near the cathedral. Clever. 

I think I found my favorite street. I am pretty sure that means "wheat beer street" or is it "white beer street"? Taber? Either way.

Markt Square int he city center

Provincial Government Palace

The Belfry Tower. and I climbed that thing. They have signs saying that it takes a significant physical effort, and they aren't lying. There are a lot of stairs. But the worst part is that the stairs are "two way" so you have to squeeze up against the wall to let other people by, so it is not for the claustrophobic. Fortunately they only let 70 people in at a time, so it can't get much worse than it was. But that means if you don't get there shortly after it opens, like I did, you will probably have to wait in a long line. at least on a weekend. 

And then this view makes all those stairs worth it. At least until the terrifying journey down.

Bells. In the belfry. I saw no bats.

Burg Square. Not sure why there were so many bikes. Maybe a biking tour.

Gothic City hall

 

I took this one for Taber.

I took this picture for mom. This was at the beer museum. I think this is the Dutch spelling.

Pasteur, man of science, man of medicine, man of beer. My hero.

Giant barrels.

I got three free "tastes" of beer with my ticket to the museum. This is their blonde. It was not bad.

Rosso, Red Fruit beer. Really tasty.

The bartender recommended Bruges Trippel for my last beer, and it was a really good suggestion. I even ended up buying a bottle before I left the city. 

Unfortunately after the beer museum I had to rush to the train station. But the route I took had a lot of awesome photo ops :) So here are a lot of cool pictures without much explanation.

This is labeled fish market on the map, but when I was there, they were selling jewelry and clothes and stuff.

Church of Our Lady (I swear every city has one)

I seriously saw a girl feeding a swan out of her hand. Why are American swans such jerks?

Minnewater, or Lake of Love in English. I didn't have time to find out why it was called that before my train left.

A cool mural in the train station. Again I could have turned this into a week-long trip if I had time. But it was awesome while it lasted :)