Bruges

If you only have a short time in Belgium I vote you go to Bruges and stay there. The travel book said if you only have 3 days in Belgium spend it all in Brussels, but, I severely disagree and think Bruges is so much better.
- My first dinner in Bruges was Flemish Stew which was really a lot like beef bourguignon, without the red wine base. It was essentially beef in a red stew sauce. It was really good, but ended up being too much of the same thing for me.
- Bruges is the first place we tried fries, which were actually made famous in Belgium, not France. My brother tried to order the fries plain, but I made him order the mayonnaise because that is the way they eat fries there, so we had to be authentic.
- We did not climb the famous bell tower, but whoa did it remind me of the movie “In Bruges”. I didn’t particularly like the movie, but the scenery was definitely beautiful.
- Of course we visited the Chapel of the Holy Blood which is rumored to have a real drop of Christ’s blood. Sadly it wasn’t on display while I was there or I would have verified its existence for all of you.
- There were many gourmand treats in Bruges. We had fries, our first waffles (my brother’s with strawberries and cream), my brother made his own mocha coffees two times (he just told the barristers what he wanted and they gave him the ingredients) and we went to the chocolate museum that gave us real pralines after the tour was over. This museum also had a life-size statue of President Obama. I didn’t really think it looked like him, but am giving the artist the benefit of the fact that chocolate isn’t the easiest medium to carve out of.
- A two-hundred-year-old windmill was also on our list of places to visit. The stairs going up and down weren’t all that steady, but it was neat to go up into it and see the view and how they used to mill back in the day.
- Bruges has some really cool old bars. One of the places has tons of different beers on tap and the other was the oldest bar in Bruges. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was neat to be somewhere that is that old. We didn’t drink tons in Bruges, but tasted some different beers that were to our liking.
- We also visited a nunnery in Bruges, which was really peaceful and quiet and surrounded by great scenery. It was really serene and the park surrounding it was really neat as well.
- Some people complain that Bruges is too crowded, and while there are quite a few people there, I really wasn’t bothered by it. It is 800 times better than Brussels in my opinion.