We spent our first day in Bruges walking around the old city.
Not really my kind of place. I don't think "palace" goes with "awning."
Many fairy-tale canals snake through the old city.
Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel was an excellent beer - very dry, very complex, quite strong. Went well with the substandard carbonnade de flammade (a Flemish stew) I had at a touristy place our first night.
Many people live in the old city - it's a very upscale area. However, since there are only a few entrances/exits from the old town, there's a rush hour with bad traffic (even though most of downtown is pedestrianized and not designed for driving). I'm not sure what it's like to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic in a Massey Fergusson tractor, but this guy is living it.
Mmm, chocolates... Apparently this just might be the best chocolate shop in the world (according to Kevin, who is Belgian and ought to know such things...). I sampled a few of their chocolates, and wow, they were good. I also sampled a few for Sarah, who couldn't have anything due to nut allergies.
Tour boat in back ground - rainy in foreground.
Tour boat departure area and one of the churches.
Finally, Belgian frites with mayonnaise! We took refuge from the rain below the town bell tower, along with many others. The fries were truly excellent. But sharing a large felt like being run over by a steamroller - not something you recover from quickly.
"Chocolate Tulip" Hot Chocolate
This was a fantastic suggestion by our host Hilda. Within 1/2 block of the main Markt is "Bittersweet," a tea room that serves light lunches etc. Hilda said we needed to try their hot chocolate. (The hostess was great & the prices were reasonable for downtown Bruges - highly recommended.)
The idea is that you have a chocolate tulip filled with dark (or milk, or white) chocolate flakes. Sarah couldn't have to tulip due to allergies, but she could have the chocolate flakes. You also have an insulated cup filled with very hot steamed milk. You drop the tulip on top, which floats for several minutes while the "leaves" soften and melt.
Then, quite suddenly, the tulip slips under the surface and is gone. Above is the moment of transition.
And now you're free to stir the milk and have the world's best hot chocolate. Not kidding, it's amazing.
Mmm, you get a few residual flakes on top & at the bottom, yum.
We happened upon a fantastic beer store near the Jan Van Eyck statue - Bacchus Cornelius. We searched for lesser-known Belgian beers, and had a wonderful 20+ minute beer conversation with their employee Inga. We bought a few bottles to sample. It was by far the coziest beer store I've ever seen.
This is the back room, with Sarah and Inga speaking up front. Real wood-burning fireplace, couch, embroidered pillows.
Even an old piano for extra charm.
Inga recommended we try one of the cellar bars nearby, for more beer. This one was closed, but we went back a couple of days later. It was full of students in their 20s, and featured an acoustic band playing very, very grunge-sounding music, which suited me perfectly since that's what I listened to and played when I was in undergrad.
The above building was apparently the former Archer's Guild, in case you didn't think this really was a medieval city.
No, it's not the Friendly Giant's castle - it's another gate through the fortifications to the old city.
Canal-appropriate boats docked along a canal.
It was nice of someone to knit this under-dressed girl some gloves and a flower.
On the way back to our room, we took a closer look at this flower garden and non-working fountain. There are plaques in three languages. Upon closer inspection...
Well, that's certainly nice for a Canadian to see.
And even closer to our room (2 blocks), I spotted this in someone's yard who was doing a little construction: Canadian wood!
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