Bruges is kind of amazing. I am so glad we came here, though it was a random stop on the trip. We started today with yet another insanely early train trip-- this time, we walked from the hostel to the train station. We got there at about 5am, and had to figure out where to go. This was a bit challenging, since one has to know the direction of a city to figure out which ultimate destination would be on the way. I just asked security people until someone pointed me to Platform 15A. 2 hrs on this train to Antwerp, then a switch for the train to Bruges, and we were off!
This hostel is fabulous. We got a cab from the train station to the hostel, which wasnt really necessary in retrospect, but we were tired and cold. We stayed at Lybeers Travellers Hostel, which I would totally recommend to anyone. The staff are very animated and friendly, the beds are cozy (we ended up with our own room!), bathrooms clean...there is a TV, guitar, piano, sheets etc. I am not much of a hostel person, but this one is a gem.
We checked in around 10 am and had some time to kill before our rooms would be ready. We
watched an episode of Family Matters on TV (which inst even syndicated in North America anymore, is it?) and half of a later-season ER (later-season in that it was garbage), before heading out to a cute little Belgian cafe for waffles and crepes. We also have hot chocolate-- unlike any other. It was literal chocolate heated up with milk and the most incredible chocolate
experience of life.
We did a little walking tour of Bruges before checking back with the hostel- there is a church here that is famous for having the Michaelangelo statue of Madonna and Child, so we went to see that. The statue is lovely, and is one of the only works to ever leave Italy in Michaelangelo's lifetime, but the entire church is filled with renaissance Christian-themed paintings. Absolutely beautiful. I would post everything if there was space, but it is definitely something to see if you ever get the chance to visit Bruges.
The architecture here makes the entire town look like a maze of doll or gingerbread houses. It is gorgeous. And unlike Amsterdam, it is easy to navigate and not obscenely cold. I was having ankle issues in our last city and had to take a little break to rest it, but I'm good now (after a tube of bengay, an ankle wrap, and 24 hrs) and was ready to hit the road running today.
We came back and checked into out room, which we ere pleasantly surprised to find belonged solely to us. We decided it was shower time, as we hadn't been clean in 3 days. The showers are either frigid or scalding, so it took awhile to find a temperature that didn't burn the skin off, but it was the highlight of the day-- my mother always told me it was amazing what soap and water could do, and she was right. Normally a shower wouldn't make the travel blog, but in this instance, as in most with long trips and a lot of travel, the times you get to shower are immortalized as highlights of the entire trip.
We had a short nap and headed out for supper. I hunted down the best Indian restaurant in town, to continue our theme. For real, the food here is SO good. Kathleen hasn't had a lot of Indian, so I order all my fav's. Tonight was veggie pakoras, saag paneer, chicken korma, rice and garlic naan. Basically, amazing. The restaurant itself was a hole in the wall with no signage, but that was never a deterrent. I've eaten IN India-- at least this place had doors.
After this, we really just walked around. There was supposed to be a walking tour that would have gone through the history, but it was cancelled due to "adverse" weather conditions. There was no snow and the cobbles were a bit slippery, but that was it. I am sure some parts of Europe have been hard-hit by snow, but I have yet to see any real accumulation.
We went to the Markt in the center of town, most famous for the massive tower in the middle. You can climb the 366 steps in the daytime for 6Euro, but we didn't get around to that. Apparently the views are amazing.
Walking around here reminded me of being in an old WWII movie-- this town looks like something straight from a film. It is very old and authentic looking, and seems like something that would have been destroyed in the war. Being Belgium, it was clearly occupied, so I did a little research and found out the following.
A few kilometers away is a town called Moerbrugge. It was here that in 1944 the 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade was tasked with building a bridge from one side of a canal to the other--clearly, their side was friendly and they were trying to get in to take the area from the Germans. There were not enough infantry, and the 10th Canadian was backed up only by the 15th Field Regiment, the South Alberta Regiment and the New Brunswick Rangers (YEAAA!!). There is a long story about how all the companies worked to get supplies across the canal until the bridge was built, and in the end we got the crossing done and the South Alberta Regiment crossed the bridge to re-connect with the C Company, who had been on their own until the other units could traverse the water. Appx. 150 German prisoners of war were sent back across the new bridge, with around 700 German casualties.
And now you know the rest of the story.
xoxo
C.
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