On Easter Monday Michael had to catch the train back to London in the afternoon. We decided to take the train to Bruges in the morning to allow Michael to see a bit of Bruges.
The train is roughly an hour and train tickets are pretty cheap. Especially on the weekend if you are getting a return ticket that same day. We headed to my hostel. I had booked three nights at the Lybeer Hostel in a private room. For the room during the week it cost 29 Euro’s per night. It did have a sink but then you had to share the toilet and showers with others. Towels and bed sheets were provided. They have a small pub in the hostel. During happy hour you can try out different Belgian beers for 2 euros. They also have free walking tours each day and schedule two beer tastings during the week. Even if you are not staying at the hostel, I would check out the pub on beer tasting nights as it is a cheap night out and you can meet a lot of travelers.
Michael and I wandered to the center square and decided to take a tour at the Beer Museum. It is definitely a tourist trap but a good place to go if it’s a rainy day and if you wish to learn a bit about the history of Belgian beers. For extra, you can try three different beers at the end of the tour in the pub they have. We were being cheap and did not go.
We did stumble upon a pub called Cambrinus. They have a great selection of beer. 400 I believe! When you enter they place a large book in front of you and this is the food and beer menu. It might take you 10-15 minutes to decide on a beer! The menu looked good and the place was packed for lunch.
I had to go drop Michael off at the train station and then try to get my bearings back to the hostel as I did not buy a data plan for my phone. I do not how anyone survived without Google. I had picked up a ‘Use It’ map at the hostel. Check out their website and if you visit a European city, I definitely recommend you find one of these handy maps. This was my tour guide for my whole three day trip. The first day I spent the evening pouring over the map and planning my next couple of days. It has some very neat ideas. You can go check out a house boat that someone lives in that is decorated, have a beer at a 500 year old pub, walk the 8 km loop around the city, check out the wind mills, shop at a vintage store, eat the best Belgian waffles and it goes on. I believe there were roughly 60 different places that they recommended.
The first day was tough but enjoyable. The only reason I say tough as it was my first time traveling solo for an extended period of time. I did not quite know what to do with myself. The thought of eating at restaurant by myself was a bit strange. And I sat there uneasily thinking that I needed to keep myself occupied by either reading or going on my phone using their free wifi. But I’m not sure if the feeling came because we are so used to being on our phones 24/7 that if we are not on our phones then we feel we are not being productive . . . By the second day I was fine. It was nice to just sit and people watch all day long. Eating at pubs and not worrying that everyone is looking at you; just enjoying the day, reading a book and having a pint. Or I guess less than a pint, as a pint of Belgian beer usually knocks me off my feet.
The first day I walked half of the loop around Bruges. This was mostly to walk off the enormous amount of meat that I consumed. As stupidly I decided to order myself a beer and a meat and cheese platter at Cambrinus. It had started raining so I thought I would spend an hour or so relaxing and reading a book. I had seen the platter the day before and I thought it was small enough for me to enjoy. I ordered the platter and a beer and started reading my book. This is what arrived . . .
I believe it was raw beef, bacon, sausage and cheese. The mustard that you dipped the meat in was delicious. I obviously could not finish it all. I do not think I have felt so full before. I kept eating as I did not want to be wasteful. So off I went for such a long walk to try and digest all that meat. It was a nice walk. I saw several windmills and boats traveling along one of the many rivers that travel throughout the city. It is quite the scene. The architecture is beautiful. There are such old houses with backyards that run along the river. However, no one is permitted to boat through the city any more as the city felt that it was getting too dangerous. Only private tour boats are permitted.
For 8 euro’s you can take a half hour boat ride. This is a good way to get a quick snap shot of Bruges and learn a bit of the history. The tour guides will speak in English, Dutch and French. The guide knew I spoke English as soon as he saw me. Not sure if it was because of my rain coat. Sporty rain coats are not a fashion item in Europe. Even if it is raining, no one wears them. Or at least more fashionable ones. We found out that in Brussels they predominately speak French. But in Bruges they speak Dutch, but apparently it’s a weird dialect. Not too sure as I do not know one word of Dutch! On the tour, the guide told us that previously the city imposed a tax on all windows. You can then see that some windows had been boarded up to save themselves from paying too much taxes. As well, if you look at the top of the building on the picture below, you can see a small hole. This was for the messenger pigeons during the time of the war. Quite interesting.
One morning I walked up the 366 stairs to get to the top of the Belfort bell tower. It was a bit claustrophobic as you can see through the pictures. There was a moment where I thought of turning around as I was not quite sure I would be able to get back down. There are a few areas to stop and read some of the history and check out the bells. Even if you are not in great shape, you would be able to climb to the top no problem. It is worth the money to climb the tower, as on a good clear day, the views at the top are impressive. When I went it was not busy and there was no problem staying at the top for awhile to wait for the bells to ring. You can watch the bells ring at the top or down at the controls. They change the tune every two years. They had just changed it that Easter weekend. Check it out. It’s worth it.
Oh and also check out Li O Lait. Great place for breakfast. And I found out that it is customary to receive a little chocolate as well with your coffee. Check out the menu. If you get the ‘slow’ breakfast, it ends off with some sort of glass of alcohol. I am assuming champagne. Go and get the slow breakfast and let me know! I had to go for the ‘quick’ breakfast. Tight schedule.
All in all it was a great trip; very beautiful and peaceful. I arrived back home on Thursday and still had another week off to catch up on school work and tour around Twickenham. Go travel by yourself. It’s worth it. You can do whatever you wish on your own schedule. Done.
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