Brügge

Brugge is in Belgium and is known as the Venice of the North, mostly I think by those who want to attract tourists there. A group of us FZJ people took a bus there for the day a couple of weekends ago.

Our first (real) view of Brugge.

The group (sans me) by the canals. Will, Akash, Rehan, John.

Wide-angle seeming view of the canals.

In a restaurant’s upstairs window, just outside of an (austere, pretty) convent. I really like the expression on the nun’s face.

Yep, Brugge was touristy. And yet, who wouldn’t want boat rides through canals and carriage rides? I suppose.

More canal pictures. Yep, I liked the canals.

Tourists on the canals. Throughout the day, we got sporadic, intense rainstorms, which would start without warning and last anywhere from 5 – 45 minutes, after which the sun would come out again almost instantly. Quite bizarre. Anyways, I was pretty amused by all of the canal tourists with their matching umbrellas. Either they were tour groups or the boats came armed with their own umbrellas for this very reason.

Pretty canals. Maroon umbrellas this time.

Trolling the streets of Brugge, with my trolls. Just kidding.

In the city square.

We had fries. The braver ones of us had fries with mayonnaise, a Belgian specialty.

Mmm, fries and dip, a balanced diet. Don’t worry, we had chocolate too. And… beer.

We went and saw the ruins of an old church, which are located underneath a ritzy hotel today. Will had acquired an insiders knowledge of Brugge before we went there (probably to get his money’s worth :-P); this was the only reason we knew that the ruins were there, or accessible in such a swanky hotel. Anyways, they had this painting they had unearthed that I quite liked.

Rehan: “Do something crazy!”

The canals again.

We found a cannon! (again, inside know-how). Noone knows how this cannon got upended and embedded in the sidewalk; the challenge is to spot it on this corner (apparently hardly anyone notices it). John and I saw it right away, and we had a fun 10 minutes watching the others try and spot it. “Warmer! No, colder. Colder.”

We visited the oldest bar in Brugge (est. 1515). There I had a Leffe beer (I asked the bartender what she recommended), which was pretty much the most delicious thing ever, and in fact blew most of my expectations about Belgian beer right out of the water. They still have an old stove and kettle in the bar, and lots of paintings of famous people (think: royalty and the like) who have visited. Fun.

Inside a candy shop that Will had heard about run by a 80-something year old woman. Discipline + Respect!!!

Would a tour of any Belgium town be replete without a windmill picture? I think not.