Saturday, March 26, 2011

Brugge, Belgium

'Vaarwel Brugge'
'Abschied Brügge'
'Adieu Bruges'
'Farewell Brugge'
FareFF

Brugge
In the 12th and 13th century Brugge was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, Brugge was the major trading port for Europe but it began to decline in the 15th century and remained short of wealth until 20th century when it started to benefit from tourism


We decided to travel to Europe by Eurostar 3 hours to Brussels from London and then a change of trains to travel to Brugge
The Eurostar was comfortable and the Brussels station was easy to find our way to the train we had to take.  Buying a ticket from London to Brussels on the Eurostar allows you to travel to any destination in Belgium for the next 24 hours using the London to Brussels ticket  (this ticket does not allow you to use use Thayne or ICE trains) does cover all other internal Belgium trains
On our arrival we met with the owner of our apartment, dropped our luggage and went off to dinner. 
Ken tried some of the local beer and liked it. 
We then went for a stroll around the canals and squares it was deserted and we wondered how all the business people survived.

Video in the square the night of arrival


Well the above video was Thursday night and the place was deserted but the next day it was absolutely packed with people. Hundreds and hundreds of people for day trips in buses with a tour guide running around all over the city so as you will see by the rest of the photos it was difficult for us to take a photo without getting tourists in them but it was not uncomfortably crowded - still easy enough to get served in the shops and get a table straight away in the restaurants.  This is the slow season here so can imagine what is like in summer holidays!!!

Photos of Brugge



The Canals

The Canals

Spring bulbs popping up

Bridge over a Canal

Windmill

Windmill

Fencing in the park

Windmill

The Canals

The Canals

Spring bulbs

Push Bikes are everywhere

Lunch - Thought Italian was appropriate as Brugge is known as the Little Venice of the North

In the Square

In the Square



The Canals

The Canals

The Canals


The Canals

1 comment:

  1. hey guys, wow, you have covered some ground since i last checked in with your blog. i'm so sorry, i was going to give you a couple of contacts in UK, are you going back there? Also, very good friends live just outside Brussels - are you going back there?
    all looks amazing - love to you both, helena and doug xx

    ReplyDelete