We met up at the train station early that morning. The program was divided into two groups, one was to do a bike tour in the morning and a walking tour in the afternoon with the other doing vice versa. I was one of the fortunate souls lucky enough to be in the morning group. It was already raining when we arrived in Bruges, but little did we realize what we were getting ourselves into. Monica handed out ponchos to everyone. I accepted one but was not yet ready to submit myself to the indignity of wearing a poncho. After meeting up with our tour guide who assigned us each a bike we were ready to set off on our tour. After surveying the pouring rain around us, I finally relented and put on my poncho.
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| What have you done to me? |
The plan for the bike tour was to ride a few kilometers outside of the city, stopping at an old fashioned windmill and then the old town harbor. I say that was the plan, seeing how we barely accomplished half of that. Initially, the conditions were not terrible as we started to make our way out of the city. It was raining but we were on the bikes going a comfortable speed with poncho's keeping us somewhat dry. The next part required us to bike several kilometers down a straightaway right next to a large canal. This was the part when everything went to shit. Upon hitting the straightaway, the elements of earth began to exact their anger on us. The rain picked up to a heavy downpour as wind blew off the canal directly on to us. The ponchos became useless as the wind caused them to tear, letting the rain, which was coming horizontally thanks to the wind, fall straight onto us. It may have been only 10 or 15 minutes but it felt like 2 hours. Eventually we did make it to the aforementioned windmill, where we got to stop and go inside.
At this point, my shoes had the structural stability of tissue boxes and my socks were more were damp than my armpits after a quidditch tournament. So going inside the windmill was a relief to all.
As far as windmills go, this one turned out to be pretty sweet. Being old fashioned, everything was run by hand, and it used the wind to mill grain. We made our way up the windmill through a series of narrow steps that caused several members of the group to fall flat on their faces. I was not one of them because I have excellent balance but I pitied my fallen comrades. We got to be right up close with the windmill equipment, which seemed to be operating at full throttle in the extremely windy conditions. It was a sight to see.
After we emerged from the windmill, the conditions remained terrible, and Monica had enough so we ended up stopping at a cafe near by for hot chocolate and to dry off. So worth it. We decided to cut our losses and head back to the city, not continuing the rest of the tour. While a good decision, the final stretch of biking proved to be the ultimate hell. Again in the canal side straightaway, the wind was even worse from this direction and the rain continued to poor down. Our speed decreased significantly and it must have taken the group twice as long to do the return leg. Eventually we made it back in one piece, ditched the bikes and got some lunch for ourselves.
As I always seem to do, I sampled the local fair with my lunch, which in this case featured the Brugge Tripel. It was another tasty triple to add to my beer list, up there with the best of them.
After lunch we met up with a new tour guide to begin our walking tour of the Bruges city center. The rain managed to hold off for the rest of the day, except for a drizzle here and there. Which was nice except the wind only seemed to get worse, which combined with the fact we were still soaking wet and walking outside was just not a fun experience. That said, the tour allowed us to see most of the well known sights of Bruges which were of course cool to see. There was the city center with its commanding bell tower:
The place was a wind tunnel so we did not stay long. Walking through the streets, we saw the most well known chocolatier in Bruges, if not Belgium at Chocolatier Dumon.
Bruges is known as the chocolate capital in Belgium and for a country known for its chocolate that's a big deal.
There was also a large church, which is currently in possession of this monument:
It was apparently in the Monuments Men Sao I guess it's a big deal. I haven't seen that movie, and honestly have no plans to do so, but hey art!
Although not as canal-y as Delft or Amsterdam, Bruges had its fair share, with some notable places resigning alongside the waterways. There was the worlds most famous and outrageously expensive bed & breakfast:
as well as the quaint hotel from In Bruges.
Let me take a second to say if you haven't seen In Bruges yet, do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP. Two words: Ralph Fiennes. Also, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason are hilarious together. And it's a great tourism spot for Bruges. You'll understand why, just watch it.
We also came across this small plaza, which if you have seen the film, you'll recognize from a critical scene:
Bruges is not just a shooting location for said film. There is other stuff, even if our tour guide did focus a bit on the film locations, not that I'm complaining.
There's this statue about love:
And this:
After about 2 1/2 hours of walking in the elements, time had come. Our experience in Bruges can pretty much be summed up by the following picture.
We went off to meet up with the other group for a nice dinner at ?????. We were ecstatic to hear how the other group was given a choice not to do the bike tour in the conditions. Just so happy for them. Anyways we had 7 choices for what to eat for dinner. I went for the spare ribs which were no KC barbecue but we're still quite delicious.
I also got to sample two more beers, trying both the blonde and brun varieties of the local Brugse Zot. Zot means something like jokesters or jesters, and serves as a nickname for the people of Bruges. Both varieties were quite excellent. I as usual, preferred the blond, but the brun was one of the best brun beers I have tried.
Having gained a solid 10 lbs in rainwater, most of us were ready to go home, luckily Bruges is just a 40 minute train ride from Brussels, so I was tucked into my bed soon enough. Putting the absolutely abysmal weather aside, Bruges was a very beautiful city. Medieval in appearance and with a certain charm. I believe on a summer day it is one of the better spots to check out. Hopefully I'll get to do see it sometime. Till next time, cheers!
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