In Bruges

We had such a good time in Bruges we decided to extend our time there by one more night. Which resulted in a nice change from a quiet Bed and Breakfast to a noisy hostel. I know that sounds like it went from a positive to a negative, but really there is more to it. Although our B&B provided for a private and quiet stay, the other people who stayed there were also quite quiet.

I blame it on the language barrier as they were some what chatty amongst each other but when I asked them a question, they would politely answer and then continue eating their breakfast. In the hostel however, everyone we talked with knew well enough English to carry on a conversation. We ended up meeting up with a girl we passed earlier in the day while bike riding (more on that later) and we joined her and two of her new friends (from Cameroon and the world it could be said) for a couple of beers and good story telling. Thank you Sam, Atom Emmanuel and MacIntosh.

A big thank you goes to Jan and Wies (pronounced Yawn and Weez). These are the uncle and aunt to Frederik (a coworker and friend from eBay). Jan met us our first morning in Bruges to guide us around the city. He was fabulous! Thursday morning he showed us some of his favourite places like the Convent lawn and the rose garden in the “old folks home”. He covered information that the boat driver didn’t. We took a boat ride Friday morning along the canals, highly recommended. For example, anyone who has been to Bruges and has taken the boat ride along the canal, quite possibly had two of the smallest windows in Bruges pointed out to them. However, did they know that along the canal in that same location is where the boats were stopped and taxed? Maybe you did know that and our boat guide missed it. But because of Jan, we knew more of the city.

Jan’s love for Bruges is self evident. He would talk about how it wasn’t really important to leave Bruges for a vacation when the weather is good. He had the sea 10-20 minutes away where he could paint and be away from all the people. He had plenty of places where he could bike and enjoy a beer and pipe. And when he wanted the international crowd, he could just spend his time in the city center of medieval portion of town and be surrounded by visitors from many different countries.
Sounds grand doesn’t it?

On the afternoon of Thursday, Wies joined us to walk around the outer borders of the town center and again we stopped at another local pub to have a beer. Now for those of you who know me, I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I have to admit I quite enjoy Belgian beers! There are ones that taste like cherries (Mystic) and others that are lovely and sweet like Bourgogne des Flandres. And each beer has it’s particular glass it needs to be served in. I can see a future shopping trip with Frederik, my California local Belgian.

Friday morning, Alec and I were on own to to check out of our B & B, check in into the hostel, wander the streets. climb the Belfry (you must watch “In Bruges to fully enjoy the Belfry Tower and the 366 stairs), and take a 30 minute boat ride along the canal.

In the afternoon, Jan joined us at the B&B to escort us to his own house just outside of the city center and pick up the bikes for our Friday afternoon ride. We rode through Dammes and further out to another favourite beer stop of Jan’s. What a beautiful ride with wonderful scenery! The fields of corn and cows (not in the same field of course), the long straight as an arrow rows of trees lining a boulevard created for bikes and cars (pretty much the width of some of our bike lanes at home). The canal next to us at times with it’s serene calm waters. It was hard to believe this was the main entry from the sea for boats to bring products into Bruges. There was nothing more ideal than this trip other than maybe Disney animated birds floating over my shoulders.

Upon returning to Jans and Wies’ home, Wies had created for us a wonderful dinner of celery soup and a traditional Belgian dish of shrimp stuffed into tomatoes and frites (of course!). Thank you again to Frederik for introducing us to Jan and Wies. They made our trip to Bruges the most memorable.

Next we are off to Amsterdam and Haarlem to visit Penny and Vincent. Penny, I met while I was in Gabon and she was managing the gorilla island of Evengue. We’ve kept in touch over the years and she’s offered us her place to stay while we are in town.

Looking forward to it!