The Adventure Continues...

After a few days rest in Arras our adventures with Gen and Andrew continued with a day trip to Bruges. We had a wonderful day walking around the historic city center, buying chocolate, and sampling the delicious Belgian beer at the Del Halve Maan brewery.

Three Generations go to Belgium

Tuesday morning my Mom, Granny Jill and I packed our bags and headed into Belgium. We drove to the city of Bruges to see its historic city centre and buy some chocolate. The historic centre of Bruges is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. The recognition could largely be considered to be for its architecture yet it’s interesting that the designation also states the importance of the city’s role in the birth of the School of Flemish ‘Primitives’ painting. 

To read more about the designation and see a video on Bruges click here.

Andre and I did go to Bruges before, at the end of the summer. The canals and architecture are so spectacular I thought it would be wonderful to spend another night again, this time with my Mother and Grandmother. We arrived at Hotel Floris Karos by noon and were able to check in right away. After a short reprise, and a bit to eat, we headed down to see the old city. We walked around the winding streets stopping in some shops along our way to the Grote Markt. We stood gapping at the immense brick Beffroi and went in the Chapel to see Christ’s blood before continuing on to the chocolate shop around the corner.

 

Whilst moseying along the canals to the chocolate shop we came across a weaving loom in action. In the arcaded square around the corner from the Grote Markt artists sell their creations; the loom weaver and his wife sell the scarves they make on the loom shown in the video below: 

From there we continued on to last Brewery that remains within the city centre limits; De Halvee Maan. Sitting by the fire we enjoyed a few brewskies. It was time for dinner by that point so after we finished our drinks we walked from the Brewery to the restaurant; Grand Kaffee de Passage. The restaurant serves fantastic regional dishes, of which we each ordered a different one and sampled each-other's. With no room for dessert we went back to the hotel for some tea, chocolate, and an early night’s sleep.

Beer, Chocolate, Brugge...

Where's Christi? Can you find me?

After everyone returned home to Canada Andre still had a few days off, so we decided to have a little getaway in Brugge. We took the train Tuesday morning and stayed over for one night. The Lamirandes had been to Bruges while they were here and left us the guidebook they used for sightseeing. We hit all the “hotspots” that interested us in the book, including a small statue of the Virgin Mary by Michelangelo, the lace makers club, and the blood of Christ. It was our first time bringing such a little guidebook around with us (we usually look into what we’d like to see on the web before we go) and it gave us a fun and different perspective not only because of the interesting “hotspots of Bruges” but also because every other tourist we saw had the same book!

View of the Canal and a packed Boat Tour

When we arrived we walked around the city, saw the aforementioned statue, and went on a Brewery tour. The De Halve Maan Brewery is the last family Brewery left in Brugges since the end of the Second World War. The tour was wonderful; our guide was an incredibly passionate elder man, and near the end of the tour we were taken to the roof for a beautiful view of the city. We were also given a delicious pint afterwards of their award-winning brew.

View from the top

After our pint we walked around the grand place and visited the chapel with Christ’s blood before continuing along the canals to the lace-making club. It was a very interesting spot somewhat like your typical Canadian Legion, but you pay to get in and see little old ladies making lace. It was a bit of an odd thing, even more so with the adjacent church modeled after one in Jerusalem and housing a replica of Christ’s tomb.

To see lace makers in action you can watch a clip on youtube

We then stopped for a snack at a café along one of the canals to watch the swans and try more of the award-winning De Halve Mann brew. We also made a pit stop to buy some delicious Belgium chocolate.

For dinner we went to the Grand Kaffee de Passage. Andre had a rack of ribs and I had a carbonade flammande; my favourite regional dish en/fr. We completed our dinner with a café; too stuffed for anything else. We spent the rest of our evening trying to walk off our dinner along the canals, which are beautifully lit up at night.

The next day we went to the local market in the grand place and grabbed a waffle and a café. We had just enough time before our train home to check out the Minnewater gardens and nunnery on the edge of town.