Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern.
Once again, I headed out for a run under cool clear skies with the promise of beautiful weather ahead. Inspired by the ease of canal and strava navigation aids, I followed the tramlines and happened across the Ghent Watersportbaan – a purpose built 5 lane rowing course just out of town. Continuing the theme of quirky things I find along the way – a rowing sculpture, and a particularly eloquent sign 🙂
On the agenda today was the highly-recommended Brugge. It’s a beautiful little town in the North West of Belgium, known for it’s mediaeval architecture. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, recognising the significance of it’s well-preserved buildings. It has a similar feel to Ghent, with a greater focus on tourists, particularly cruise lines.
Brugge has some of the prettiest canal spots we’ve seen. Minniewater ‘The Lake of Love’ and ‘Rosary Quay’ are two of the most picturesque spots in the town.
A boat trip along the canals is a ‘must do’ in Brugge. The tour passes through the oldest, prettiest, and lowest bridges in the town, as well as passing the channels that lead to Ghent and the North Sea. We could definitely feel that one!
Back to three times a pattern… dumping rain. After dashing to escape some freezing downpours in Brussels and Ypres we hopped on our Bruges boat tour armed with ponchos. Some days I’m so grateful for my preference for function over fashion!
Once again, we enjoyed walking the streets of Brugge to absorb the buildings. Like the other Belgian towns, the Market Square provides a vibrant place to meet, a Belfry towers over the city, and Belgian architecture with it’s stepped gables features heavily. These are great places!
The ‘Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaarde’ is a small community on the edge of town founded in 1245. It was once the home of the beguines, liberated women who chose to live a pious and celibate life. Still today, some nuns from the Order of Saint Benedict and Order of Vincent de Paul live there, as well as single women from Bruges. It’s fascinating how some things really stand the test of time.
St John’s Hospital was built in the mid-12th Century and is one of the best-preserved mediaeval hospitals in Europe. It’s now a museum devoted to ‘hospitality’, focusing on care and healing in addition to showcasing an extensive art collection. It’s always intrigued me when hospitals seem to hold major art collections. It’s nice to see that this one is now sharing it with the wider community!
It’s been suggested that I’m not sharing nearly enough culinary experiences from the home of chocolate, beer, waffles, frites and mussels. Bearing in mind that the first two are lost on me, the others haven’t been as prolific as you’d expect and seem to to be reserved for tourists. The bonus has been the speculaas that appear randomly with coffee (now espresso due to the milk…) that take me right back to childhood treats.
We chanced some decent ‘fritjes’ in a hurry in Ypres, and decided that Bruges had to deliver the goods on the rest today. Mum dealt with the beer, we both had to do the waffle, and our final dinner in Ghent incorporated mussels and Flemish stew, another childhood memory jogger.
Our tour of Belgium is complete. It’s been a great few days learning about Belgian history, the connection with Australia, and adding to my personal stories and heritage. I’ve always said that I wanted to visit Belgium with Bonnie Bonne… so grateful that I’ve had the chance.
Love M & BBx
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