Brugge, Belgium - Wet, windy but oh so beautiful!

My first moment of falling in love with Brugge was when I was standing on a bridge, overlooking a small river reflecting the deep autumn colours that dripped off the trees, like a misty water-colour painting. My initial thought was that it reminded me of the bridge in Anne of Green Gables, and I was almost expecting to see handsome Gilbert appear (Sarah Weir, I know you would understand this). Even though it was raining, the city still held a romance and history that intrigued me and kept me warm, despite what my cold, purple fingers were arguing.

 

It was a little wet. Actually that’s quite an understatement, it was bucketing down. Despite the cold and the wet taunts Mark was extremely keen to take a boat road down the canal. We were all playing along, saying that if the weather cleared up we would suss out the boat ride. There were sightings of lip pouts from Mark and frequent queries into a possible boat ride, when all of the sudden we were perfectly positioned to watch a gliding boat pass underneath the bridge we were standing on. It was in this moment, without any words passed between us, the decision was finalised that we were not getting on a boat. The passing passengers could not be seen underneath their roofs of umbrellas, except for one guy sitting exactly in the middle of the boat; we managed to catch eye contact with the man as he glanced up slowly before going under the bridge, silently pleading to be anywhere but there. The misery on the man’s face was so evident, as was the fact that he forgot his umbrella and was forced to endure the saturating boat ride. We burst out laughing and looked at Mark, whose bottom lip was nowhere to be seen.

 

The main square was adorned with a line of green awnings, each holding above their hidden entrances brick buildings with welcoming windowsills of flowers or lampshades. Peaking out from amongst the square buildings, in the distance a beautifully tall church and its steeple was visible. I love stone churches! And this one was quite vast in its size. However the walk around it was a brisk one as we were desperate to find somewhere indoors. We managed to stumble across several chocolate shops and this did the job just fine. The smell was seductive and so tasteful! We promised ourselves a hot chocolate at the end of the day, once we visited the chocolate museum!!

 

It wasn’t what I first envisioned… endless chocolate tasting, with maybe a little show bag of chocolate souvenirs.  No, not quite. However, it was still really impressive – the history of chocolate as well as enormous chocolate sculptures and the viewing of chocolate making. We managed to walk out with a delicious taster, only further feeding our desire for that hot chocolate.

 

So we ventured around a little more until we were forced into the doors of a gorgeous tearoom café, by the gushing cold wind. Wallpapered with flowers and butterflies, the warmth of the room and the smell of the baking ushered us to our seats where we ordered our steaming hot drinks. The boys weren’t even bothered by the choice of the overly feminine café, however they must have foreseen what was to come for dinner… A pub serving the tastiest stews along with the finest beer they had come across. Tim was sold that it was the best beer in the world, which I think was helped by the novelty of the glass he was drinking out of. Both glass and Tim’s joy can be spotted in the photos!

 

With the warmth of a good feed and a train to catch, we walked back to the station feeling a little more acquainted with Brugge, but perhaps a desire to come back and reintroduce ourselves when the weather was a bit nicer. It felt like I had glimpse inside a treasure chest and was able to see its stunning beauty, but did not uncover all the treasures that it was holding.