A second chance in Bruges, Belgium

Sitting in Hasselt with the maps out we struggled to decide where to go. We’d already visited the big hitters like Gent and Bruges, but a quick look at our blog post from our trip to Bruges told me we needed to return. We’d done the city a huge disservice! When we visited in 2012, we:

• were tired, as pampered pooch Charlie had kept us awake most of the night,
• were on our way home at the mid-point (MOT) in our two year tour and we hated having a deadline,
• only walked around for couple of hours at peak tourist time having parked for free on the ring road,
• and or some reason were under the impression it was all fake, having all been rebuilt after the war.

To give Bruges a second look, the satnav was programmed and we blasted across the free Belgium motorways (which aren’t as bad as I remember either). We set off early as comments on Park4Night suggested the motorhome aire right on the edge of the city often gets full. Our keenness was rewarded with a choice of spaces when we arrived at 11.30am. In fact it never got full, despite it being a national holiday weekend. Maybe that was because the aire costs €30 (yes, I gulped too) because we’re now in high season. I did spot lots of motorhomes parked up for free on the side of the ring road like we did last time.

This time we treated ourselves to a space in the aire, which came with 10kWh of electric (although we’ve no idea how they monitor that). We’d also a view of folks spending the holiday on their boats moored up on the other side of a fence. Not wanting a repeat of our McDonalds scoffing in Hasselt, we had a bite to eat in Zagan before heading out to explore the city.

The aire is on an island to the south of the old town, shared with the bus parking for all the tourist coaches. There were A LOT of coaches. There were also a lot of people, many of them following in the wake of a tour guide armed with an umbrella or paddle with a number on it. I started to get the creeping feeling of why we didn’t enjoy the city last time.

We crossed over a bridge into the UNESCO old town (yes the whole place is on the register) and turned left away from the swells of tourists. We wandered around a pretty park, then found ourselves crossing a UNESCO logo on the floor as we stepped into the Begijnhof. The former convent and white painted houses surrounding a garden was a haven of serenity as there were only a couple of tour groups in there. The place has been inhabited exclusively by women since the mid 13th Century. We even spotted a nun while we wandered through, but as always they are tricky to capture on camera.

Soon we were back in with the throngs heading up a street lined with shops declaring “The best chocolates in Belgium”, “The cheapest chocolates in Bruges”, “Bruges’ favourite chocolate shop”. If it wasn’t full of chocolates, waffles and beer shops I’d have called it ‘Tat Alley’, my endearing term of any collection of souvenir shops. As we walked along what we thought was a pedestrian street, the clip clop of horse hooves had us (and everyone else) diving out of the way of horse-drawn carriages with fellow tourists charging through.

While wandering the streets, be prepared for all of your senses to be to overwhelmed. Your eyes by the beautiful architecture, your ears by the myriad of languages and your noses with the heady mix of melting chocolate and horse poo.

Crossing numerous bridges we looked down into packed boats touring the canals, each driver or an audio guide explaining the surroundings in various languages. We toyed with the idea of taking a boat ride, but the queues were huge, so we opted to explore on foot. This time though we weren’t tired, we didn’t have Charlie with us and we found the crowds were worth putting up with for the views.

It’s a good job we don’t still have rolls of camera film these days as I would have certainly got through a couple of 36s! Every vista and every street had something worthy of a shutter click.

I was tempted by both the chocolate and frites museums, there’s also a beer one too, as well as the usual art and history ones. We just enjoyed walking around and looking at the place with different eyes.

After a few hours we headed back towards Zagan and I finally gave into temptation. Tat Alley had me with its aromas of chocolate and I treated myself to a Belgian Waffle topped with fresh cream and melted chocolate – before getting down to the serious business of choosing which other toppings I wanted to add (I managed to squeeze five more on).

In the evening we went out for runs. Jay ran the loop around the outskirts of the old city, while I raced a huge barge with road bridges lifting and swinging out of the way for it. Jay had warned me that the north west side of the loop was a tad industrial, so after eyeballing the four remaining windmills, I came back through the city centre which was now much quieter.

We settled down for an quiet evening, but the boat folks had a different idea. Following an afternoon BBQ and darts tournament next to their moorings, several gathered in one of the boats with an eclectic mix of tunes playing out for us all to hear. I’m not sure if someone had a word, but around 10.30pm the tunes went off and we had a peaceful night.

We woke to rain. The forecast not getting any better, we bid farewell to Bruges, but know that we will return one day for another look around, maybe go into a museum or take a boat tour. For now I’m just pleased that we popped by to make friends with this beautiful city, albeit for a short period of time and with lots of other folks there too.

Finally, it turns out Bruges was spared destruction in WWII, possibly thanks to its historical beauty. Germany Commander Immo Hopman is said to have refused to carry out orders from his superiors to destroy the city as they retreated. If this is true we have Immo to thank for keeping this picture perfect place on the map.

Ju x

PS – If you want a different view of the city, this blog post about Bruges by follow motorhomers ‘The Office is Closed’ makes me want to head back there around Christmas time.