below: where to run/where to eat/what to do
well, this is a post to tell you all how I wanted to go to Brugge for TWENTY EFFING YEARS!
seriously
it never seemed like in the way to anything, or worth a trip. To tell you the truth, we got there on a Monday at like 6 pm and left Wednesday at 8 am and it was TOO much time… It’s a small town, but there is not a lot to see, unless you’re interested in the french fries/chocolate/beer museums… So 24 hours can do it, you’ll get to eat all the amazing food and see all of it, mostly if you go for a run.
To start, we went for a walk as soon as we got there Monday at like 6 or 7 pm and WE WERE IN SHOCK DYING at how beautiful it was… The whole city looks like a movie set… INTENSE. The walk was amazing and we just couldn’t get over how beautiful the place is.
The running
Downloaded two run-maps from the Great Runs website. I can’t recommend it enough…! There are a few runs there. BUT, it’s very easy to get lost with all the strange street names and all the turns, so I’d recommend downloading mapmyrun, adding the runs and follow the app, or just go run wherever your heart tells you to go and when you’re tired just map your way back. It might be worth planning a run to the rampants to see the windmills. But otherwise, just run around and enjoy.
The food
- The main specialties, obviously: Wafels. Fries. Chocolate. Moules Frites. Beer.
OMG.
The OTHER Brugge’s specialties are: (text from this post)
- Cannibale: A riff on steak tartare, but served on slices of sweet white toast called pain de mie and cut into triangles. Capers, pickled cornichons, and mini onions are usually added on top or on the side.
- Croquettes aux crevettes grises/garnalen krokketten: Crevettes grises—teeny gray shrimp—are everywhere in Belgium, caught in the North Sea and served in myriad forms across the country. A croquette is one of the tastiest ways to eat them: packed together, rolled in a rich sauce (usually béchamel), covered in breadcrumbs and then fried.
- Tomates aux crevettes grises/tomaat met grijze garnalen: shrimp mixed with mayonnaise and tomato. Try it as an appetizer, where the shrimp mixture is used to stuff a cold tomato, or look out for it as a sandwich filling.
- Waterzooi: This creamy, soupish stew is so clearly Flemish there’s no French-name equivalent. Today you’re more likely to find it made with chicken than fish.
- Anguilles au vert/paling in’t groen: Eel, in thick, green-hued sauce that it comes doused in, made of herbs chervil and sorrel.
- Carbonnades flamandes/stoverij: Beef stew, cooked with beer rather than wine, which thickens the sauce and gives it a heartier, but also sweeter, flavor. It’s normally served in an individual casserole pot, with a few hunks of slow-cooked beef swimming in the sauce. Why so much liquid? Because they’ll throw in a side of frites for you to dip in it.
Chocolate: All over the city. Chocolatier Dumon Bruges, Pierre Marcolini Bruges, The Chocolate Crown, The Chocolate Line Bruges are really good, but really, pretty much all chocolate there is GOOD.
Beer. Just go here: ‘t Brugs Beertje
Fries. Go to the green trucks in front of the Belfry and add your sauces!
Food. Again, everywhere we ate was amazing. We did make a reservation at Bistro Brutt. GO. It was amazing. Everywhere else we ate was good but this was phenomenal. Now, keep in mind that the opening hours are strange. Most places were open like 10 am to 1, or 12 to 2, and then 4 to 6, or crazy stuff like that. It was shocking how much was closed at breakfast or dinner time. We really wanted to try House Of Waffles (Wollestraat 31) but the three times we tried, it was closed. The Gingerbread Tea Room (Sint-Amandsstraat 29) was amazing for breakfast. chez vincent (at Sint-Salvatorskerkhof 1) was amazing for food (FRIES!) and it was open for “dinner”, like at 6 pm or something.
Things to do
So, there’s not a LOT to do other than walk around, look at the amazing city, and eat… which is great for me!!!! if you run around a bit in the morning, you’ll see pretty much everything…! But here we go
The Belfry of Bruges is a medieval bell tower in the centre of Bruges, Belgium. One of the city’s most prominent symbols, the belfry formerly housed a treasury and the municipal archives, and served as an observation post for spotting fires and other danger. A narrow, steep staircase of 366 steps, accessible by the public for an entry fee,[2] leads to the top of the 83 m (272 feet) high building, which leans 87 centimetres to the east. To the sides and back of the tower stands the former market hall, a rectangular building only 44 m broad but 84 m deep, with an inner courtyard. The belfry is a key component of the UNESCO world heritage site of the historic centre of Bruges. Open every day, 9:30 am to 6 pm. $12 euros. We got lucky that they were having a concert that night. It was pretty awesome!
There is a chocolate museum, a fries museum and a beer museum, which we ignored. There is also a torture museum that my husband visited in less than an hour. He thought it was great. I didn’t ask for specifics, just in case.
The Basilica of the Holy Blood was quite impressive to see. It is a Roman Catholic basilica that houses a venerated relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders. Built between 1134 and 1157 as the chapel of the Count of Flanders, it was promoted to a minor basilica in 1923.
St. Salvator’s Cathedral is the cathedral of Bruges, Flanders, in present-day Belgium.
The Church of Our Lady dates mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Its tower, at 115.6 metres (379 ft) in height, remains the tallest structure in the city and the second tallest brickwork tower in the world (the tallest being the St. Martin’s Church in Landshut, Germany).
Overall a gorgeous city to visit for a short time, eat well and just relax with the views.
Just one thing… how come NO ONE thought of making chocolate covered fries???
runningandthecity 