About two months ago (whilst tying it in with a trip to see friends of ours who live in Luxembourg) we got to visit the beautifully quaint city of Bruges (Brugge) Something, I admit, that has been on my to-travel list for quite some time and I’m so glad that we went.
To start, We (my husband Kevin and I) couldn’t quite believe how quick and easy it was to reach Bruges from the Isle of Wight (U.K). We left the island in our car, got on the 5:30am car ferry to Southampton (which takes approximately an hour) a 2.5 hour drive to Dover, a 40 minute journey on the Euro tunnel (Dover to Calais) and just a short hours drive off of the tunnel and we arrived in Bruges just before 1pm (an hour ahead of U.K time) a seven hour journey from start to finish and that included our ferry and euro tunnel, it really was that easy!
If you’re wondering why we decided to drive (apart from the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of flying) it was actually just as cost effective as any of the other forms of transport, we liked the convenience of having the comfort of our own car and we thought, if possible, then why not take a little road trip!? Plus, my husband absolutely loves driving and is one of the most confident drivers I know so, to him, it was no worry at all.
Before arriving, we had booked an apartment called Inn Bruges (if you’ve seen the film then you’ll probably appreciate this name) through booking.com with our friend Adam but he wasn’t arriving until later in the day and we couldn’t check in until 3pm so we parked our car in the Katelijne 24 hour car park just a two minute walk down the road, super convenient and very cheap, at just €8,70 for 24 hours we thought this was extremely reasonable for city centre car park. 
We then Left our bags in the car and set off for a couple of hours to scope out Bruges in the sunshine. 
Let me tell you, Bruges is BEAUTIFUL and its everything I’d pictured it to be.
Our apartment and the car park were only a 10 minute walk from the centre and on the way to the centre we passed an abundance of chocolate shops, lots of boat tour operators and many little restaurants. After a little exploring and snapping a few photos in the centre (of course) we headed back to the car park to grab our stuff and check into our apartment,Which was SO easy to access! 
The hosts sent an email through booking.com with two codes. One to get into the main building and one to get into our personal apartment. Incredibly easy and no faffing around picking up keys!
Once in, we were pleased with the facilities, all fresh, clean and just how it looked upon booking.
Naturally, After a 4am start, kev and I took the opportunity to have a quick hours sleep in the apartment before our friend was due to arrive around 6pm. It wouldn’t be a holiday without a quick little nap after all! (Is this just us or does anybody else need to do this when they travel too?)
Thanks to google maps (how did we ever cope before!?) we found the train station in no time (only a short 15 minute stroll out of town, from our apartment) and after my husband and Adam greeted each other with their usual running hug, we said our hellos, took a quick pit stop off at the local supermarket (again only two minutes from our apartment! ) for some bits for breakfast and some Beers for the boys, back to the apartment to drop Adams bag off and then we set back off for a chilled evening in the Centre. 
I had done the norm and taken to google and tripadvisor for the best restaurants in town, before we arrived, but the hosts of the Inn Bruges apartment had very kindly left us a leaflet containing a warming welcome to the apartment, information about the apartment, the city itself and where to and where not to go, including some restaurant recommendations. 
(We do love a recommendation!)
After deliberating over going to a lovely looking Greek restaurant called the Olive Tree, that both Adam and I had spotted on tripadvisor already, we decided to take the appropriately cultural approach and go to a restaurant called Breydel, that served more Traditionally Bruges-style food (mainly seafood) instead – just off of the town square. (Both high on trip advisor and both were in the recommendation leaflet and if we’d had a second night in Bruges then we would have definitely visited the Greek restaurant too!)
Before heading directly to the restaurant we took a short wander through town again, taking in the scenery and catching up in the meantime. We’d also seen in the leaflet that there was a cool looking bar called The Beerwall which, yes you’ve guessed it, served lots of Belgian Beer, a whole wall of it in fact! (If you hadn’t already guessed) and if you visit the cellar downstairs from their shop, you can buy different kinds of individual bottled beers to take home with you.
They had a very sociable terrace area where you could sit, sip beer and watch the boats drift by on the river. Bliss.
The boys ordered their beers (they served tasting trays for those who’d like to trial more than one beer) and before we knew it we were making conversation with a Mexican couple and a friendly lady from Greece too. After the pleasant conversation slowly started to drift towards politics (not always the best subject matter to discuss with complete strangers) we decided this might be the opportune moment to slip away and head to dinner!
(I will state that most bars and pubs seemed to be closing after 8pm so take this as a warning if you visit the city. They still serve alcohol in the restaurants with your meal and I’m sure you would be able to find places that opened a little later but just something to take heade of if you’re planning on visiting and having a few drinks during your break.)
Onto Breydel we went, which was a quick and convenient 10 minute walk towards Bruges main square from the Beerwall. (The city is extremely easy to navigate around and nothing seemed too far.) After a little confusion as to whether the restaurant was actually open (the sign was mistakingly turned to closed) we were in, seated and greeted by our waiter, who was both friendly and a little playful; A very pleasent atmosphere indeed and a great recommendation from our hosts at Inn Bruges. Two of us ordered muscles and my husband had the streak, which he proclaimed was delicious! The muscles, recommended by our waiter, were also delicious and so were the desserts. (In all their Belgian chocolatey glory).
Everything was extremely tasty. I will be honest, The meal wasn’t cheap, most of the main meals were €25,00 and above (none of Bruges is particularly cheap really) but for great food and a chilled evening with our friend (including a little wine) I’d say it was completely worth it. 
On the walk back to our apartment we meandered slowly through the town and it quickly became apparent that Bruges is as equally alluring, if not more so, by nightfall; I, ofcourse, took this opportunity to snap up some more photos of the buildings in their illuminated state.
It was probably nearing 11pm by the time we got back to the apartment and so instead of going with our original plan (of watching the DVD of In Bruges, left behind by the hosts, a nice touch!) we decided to get to bed and make an early start for breakfast and a little more exploring in the morning.
When we awoke we spent a good hour lazily chatting and setting up for breakfast. We bought breads, meats and some fruit and fruit juices for our breakfast. Very European. In the background we played the film. We’d all seen it before and like many, I’m sure, had been quoting parts of it throughout our time in the city. (Because we’re just that cool) so to watch the film again did bring upon a few laughs.
After the film finished we got ourselves ready, tidied up after breakfast and we packed everything up ready to load into the car. 
Back into the town we went. We had a little more time to soak up the sights and atmosphere.
One of the many things I noticed about Bruges was how many modern shopfronts had been built into older facades, this gave for a nice touch to the city, a fair compromise between the older parts of the city and its ascent into modern times. 
After looping the city and arriving back at the big square we thought it might be a good idea to climb the Belfort tower (made even more iconic in the film In Bruges) and view the city from another level, however, we greatly underestimated how busy it would be on a Saturday and upon realising how long we’d be waiting just to get a glimpse of the view from the top, we decided viewing it from below was enough. (Kev and I had noticed it was far less busy on the Friday afternoon when we arrived so visiting on a week day may be a better idea if you wish to do all the touristy bits!) 
After an hour or so of walking there was just a couple of things to do before leaving. I’d already made it clear to the boys, before the trip, that I didn’t want to leave the city without trying a real Belgian Waffle. So thats exactly what we did!
There are many choices of where to go for waffles in Bruges, we opted for The Wafflehouse. Situated fairly close to The Beerwall which we had visited the night before. (This was also in our recommendation leaflet) We walked in and the heavenly scent of Belgian chocolate and waffle batter hit us like a sweet tonne of bricks. We knew we had chosen well.
Although busy, it took only a five minute wait to get seated. Clearly a popular place though. (So popular that they had their own facebook like tally – which we obviously had to try for ourselves, it worked! A cool touch we thought) It was cosy and we were met by smiling waitresses.
The menu possessed a wide variety of different kinds of waffles, both sweet and savoury options (but lets face it, nobody was thinking about the savoury options at this particular moment in time) we had our eyes on anything with fruit and chocolate and boy did they deliver! You could choose from their recommended menu of fruit and chocolate collaborations or you could create your own with a mix-and-match system which was nice. They also served fresh fruit milkshakes. So ,naturally, we ordered one of those too. Go big or go home, right? 
It didn’t take us long to eat our waffles, and with chocolate on the brain our next mission was to find a chocolate shop (because, when in Bruges!) With every other shop being a chocolate shop, it’s can be hard to choose which ones to go in. We had spotted one with a lovely chocolate display, Called Home Sweet Home not far from our apartment though, so we headed back there on the way back to our car.
The nice thing about this one was that you could see them making things as you shopped. So you know that some of the chocolates they were selling weren’t just ordered in. You could buy boxed or tinned chocolates or there was a couple of different pick-and-mix stations with anything from hard shelled chocolates to Florentines, buttons, dusted truffles and so much more! 
After buying a rather weighty box of pick-and-mix chocolates we also bought a couple of pre-boxed Belgian chocolates for gift souvenirs before heading onto Luxembourg to spend some rather chilled, quality time with our friends.
All-in-all our time in Bruges was short but sweet. (Quite literally!) We have good memories to look back on and I would certainly recommend going, to anybody who might be thinking of it.
With its pretty rivers and canals, restaurants, pubs, museums and shops there’s certainly enough to do. The city is small enough to see in a day and big enough to spend a couple of days exploring too. It’s perfect for a group of friends but could also make for a romantic getaway with a partner too! We’d like to go back at some point to learn a little more of the history and to climb the Belfort tower, I’d also like to take my DLSR with me next time as all of my pictures for this blog were taken on my phone and I’ve since upgraded my DLSR camera (typically) but our short trip was definitely worth while.
If you do visit, I’ve left the links to everything in the highlighted lettering so please do check these places out! If you’ve visited Bruges yourself then I’d love to know your own thoughts, experiences and what you got up to during your visit.
Or if you live in Bruges then maybe you have some personal recommendations for our next visit?
As always, thank you for reading
Until next time (I promise it wont be as a long a wait!)
X
The Finer Details Blog 