Belgium

Bruges continues….Let me tell you about this wonderful and captivating city of Belgium wherein Dutch, German and French are the official Languages. Since Honey’s grandmother lives just near the doorstep of Bruges (20 kms. away from the French boarder) we decided to stroll one afternoon. We were lucky to have great weather because normally the weather in the North is quiet warmer compared to South. BRUGES is a Flemish region but there are people who speak French. In Dutch Brugge, halt from Bryggja, which presumably used to indicate "landing stage" or "port". An explanation I get from Honey who works in the port and from a grandmother of 88 years old. This place is also called as the "Little Venice of the North" and the second most visited city of Belgium. City is full pack of tourists! Well it's not surprising it's S-P-R-I-N-G! Arriving at the centre we were looking for a parking space. We needed to turn around twice because there were no places available. At last we found a place to park the car. Now the problem is how to pay the parking space? We found the machine but we did not understand a thing. No English translation only in Flemish (why not in French since it's Belgium and French boarder) ??? Fortunately the signs are much easier to understand. I paid 4 euro but the machine did not accept the coins and kept coming back. It took us time to understand and analyse the situation. I even crossed the street and check the other machine thinking that probably machines aren't working here in Bruges. We found out that machines only accept the exact amount. Therefore, I needed to look smaller cents to complete the payment. Finally, after 10 minutes ! Yes you heard me right 10 minutes of finding out how the machine will accept the coins! I wonder why there's no English translation since it's a tourist spot ?

Now I am just going to have a short tour for you to see how beautiful the place is. If you plan to visit Europe this is a must see place! I took few photos because I was out of battery..darn !

Provinciaal Hof (Provincial Court)


One of the streets where parking is available

The Belfry (Befroi) - situated on the south side of the Market square (Markt).


My son who just woke up and me asking to pose just in front of these bicycles (means of Belgian transportation too).

Cycling is cool but sometimes it's quite dangerous because there is no part in Bruges that is car free. Or is it because I am not used to such quantity of people riding a bike on the streets. In my place they have just started last year and it's pretty working. It was impressive to see bicycles, cars and buses crisscrossing the city. Young and old, men and women it's just amazing and one thing for sure...less pollution ! I appreciate more to visit a city which is visibly clean and no garbage on the streets much less dog's sh*t. Typical Belgian houses are in bricks and they are quite big !

We should have leave earlier to at least make a bigger tour. Though it was a short stroll we are planning to visit the place again. We will also try to visit neighbouring cities like Brussels and Gent. There are still a lot more to see and to photograph like the famous Canal (Spinolarei et Spiegelrei), museums, parks etc. We did not even try the restaurants and savour Belgian culinary like the mussels and fries as we left the house after lunch. Otherwise we were able to buy mouth watering chocolates like Leonidas and Cote d'or which are more less expensive compared to France. If Swiss has the best chocolate and Germany has the best beer, Belgium is also the country of best chocolates and beers !