Day 6, Sunday, 19 Aug: Brussels to Brugge

Today we bid adieu to our hosts and ended our wonderful Brussels experience.

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It was an easy hour and a half trip to our next stop Brugge, a port city on the North Sea. As soon as we got out of the car, we immediately felt the cool breeze off the sea. Wayne thought It was wonderful. Peggy reached for her fleece.
 
Our first stop after checking into our hotel, was the tourist info center. As with most Europeans working in tourism, the clerk spoke excellent English. (Peggy regrets not taking time to learn some basic conversational French.) We left armed with information and a map. 
 
After stopping  for a quick bite to eat, we headed for a canal tour. Like Venice, the canals are lined with cafes, hotels and homes that are well maintained or restored. Some homes have beautiful little gardens adjacent to the canal while other homes and buildings formerly belonged to merchants, with deep first levels for storage. Some of the buildings along the canal were used to house guilds. The canals were 1.5 – 2 meters deep with clean fresh water and fish (mostly carp). There were also wonderful views of such historic buildings as the Belfey and the Church  of Our Lady. (Alas, our seats in the boat did not provide good photo ops.) The Belfry is 83 meters  (250 feet) tall. It overlooks Market Square (Markt). Markt is surrounded by colorful buildings that were once embassies of the trading nations and mansions of the merchants from the 13th  – 15th centuries. 
 
The Church of Our Lady is another amazing example of Brugge architecture. It’s 115.5 meters (approximately 350 ft) brick tower makes it the second tallest brick church tower in the world. The interior of the church is equally beautiful. The pièce de résistance is the Madonna and Child sculpture by Michelangelo.
 
Brugge is a small city with many canals and wonderfully restored medieval homes and buildings. From the 13th  – 15th centuries it is said to have been the greatest trading crossroads in North – West Europe. It was an important port city until its harbor filled with silt. It has regained prominence since a canal was dug again connecting Brugge to the North Sea. 
 

Wanting as much of a Brugge experience as possible, we followed the canal tour with a City Bus tour which got us closer to some of the Historic Sites and introduced us to others.

Alms Houses

The restored almshouses were charity homes built for retired craftsmen and the elderly. They are small homes that look charming. Some are clustered around a courtyard.

There is also a chocolate museum,  a Friet (French fries), and a Diamant (Diamond) Museum. French fries, we discovered, were actually created in Belgium, so they are neither French nor American.  In the 15th century, diamond polishing was first performed in Brugge and Brugge remained an important polished diamond producer until the industry migrated to Antwerp. Even today, diamonds remain an important Belgian export. The bus tour also included a stop at Burg Square where the 14th century City Hall and the Civil Registry, now known as the Liberty of Brugge, are located. 

 
We completed our delightful tour of modern and medieval Brugge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with an authentic Flemish dinner at Delerium Cafe. Finally, we headed back to our hotel with hopes of catching up on the blog and a good night’s rest before continuing our odyssey.