Brugge is a beautiful city and one of my favorite aspects is the unique stepped architecture of the roofs. Back in the day, the roofs were very hard and time-consuming to construct, therefore they were an indicator of high status. Brugge was a very wealthy city due to the cloth trade. Like many European cities there is a many square and streets that radiate off of it. There are many other small plazas, the focal points of which are usually a church.
Today, we walked, rode, and cruised. After a brisk walk from the station and a quick frites stop (I think they might get mad if you call them French fries) and a soup and sandwich lunch; we started the ascent of the Burg Tower or Belfort. The Belfort was built in the 11th century and housed the city treasury as well as the market hall for the cloth merchants. Today is still houses 47 bells, which you can visit via 366 narrow, spiral stairs. At least there is a central rope to hold onto since up and down traffic use the same steps :) The view from the top is worth the trek - panoramic and sprawling. I really love all the red roofs and the view of the surrounding countryside. The bells are cool and I might add, loud, if you happen to be up there when they start playing.
OK, walking. Check! To rest our legs we decided on a short canal cruise. The cruises are about 30 minutes long and whiled the canals are not as grand as Venice, they are still scenic. It's a fantastic way to see the architecture of the city. We even learned that there are 43 bridges in Brugge (I think the first one was built in the 1400s) and that you could go all the way to the Netherlands along the same canal!
Now that our legs were ready to go again we stuck out on bikes for the nearby village of Damme. Belgium has a great bike culture and has extensive bike routes. This one led us along a canal for a distance of just over 4 miles to Damme. The ride provided views of farms and fields as we rode under stately trees. Near Damme we stopped at a working windmill and got to have a look inside. This mill was processing grain when we visited. It takes less than 10 minutes to walk around the city, but we managed to see two Teslas in that time period! They were having a big festival while we were there to celebrate the eating of the first small fishes of the season. Of course, they were eating those fish :) Back in the day, Damme made its money in the Herring industry, before its harbor silted in.
All of this exercising was hard work, so we had to hit some chocolate shops on our way to dinner - we are in Belgium after all... Dinner was at a restaurant that specialized in grilled meats, the boys went for steak, while I tried out the seafood. The meal was good and equally impressive was the baked potato that Josh had that had a serving of garlic butter that was as big as a silver dollar!
When we got back into Brussels, we had to stop for a waffle, since our first one was disappointing. Unfortunately, so was this one so we are still on the hunt for an awesome waffle - maybe tomorrow! Oh, and on our way back to the B&B we checked in on the Manneken Pis today donned a guitar and hard rock t-shirt, to celebrate the founding of the restaurant in 1971. Wonder what he will be wearing in the morning....
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