chips, chocolate and beer |
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Spectacular buildings and canals mean the centre's a bit like a theme park, with horse-drawn carriages on the cobbled streets, boat trips and tour parties - but that's what you come for,
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The food's not universally brilliant. One croque monsieur was just a cheese-and-ham toastie that would have shamed a British pub. Conversely, de Wijngaerd, in Wijngaardstraat, does a splendid steak, cooked in front of you over an open fire. You really don't have to get far from the centre to lose the crowds, if you want, even at busy times. Take something like the Insight Guide to Bruges out of the library, and and follow its suggested walking routes, with historic buildings round every corner. Not much in the way of nightlife. But there are brewery trips, bike hire places (an easy 4km ride along the canal to Damme, for beer and a plate of grub in Sint Pieters Hoeve) and the Groeninge museum.
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A great discovery was the Kasteel Minnewater, a bar-tearoom with a terrace right on the placid and unbelievably picturesque Lake of Love, where you can have a beer, a snack, or a coffee and waffle, in the company of Belgian ladies who've finished their shopping, or the tourists who, like us, have guidebooks which mention it! (Waffles, incidentally, are overrated in my opinion. Just Yorkshire puddings with sugar.) Along with a bike ride along the canal to the even quieter medieval town of Damme, it's a memorable trip.
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Even at busy times, just a few streets away from the main squares, you see a still-living town, with people going about their canal-side business.
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de Wijngaerd, in Wijngaardstraat
Kasteel Minnewater
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Damme, 4km away - like all the best bits of Bruges, but in miniature and not so busy
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Published on Sunday March 18th, 2007 by bainbo
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