Venice of the North

Bruges, Belgium, is often called the Venice of the north. My family (except poor K of course since he had to work) adores the city! It only took us about 20 minutes (after the 1 1/2 hour car ride) to find the parking garage, which was the worst part. Touring Europe comes with the price of figuring out how to get from point A to point B and parking the car along the way, or taking an overpriced train without the car. We shoved my dad in the passenger seat and my mom between the kids for the car ride up and back.

So, what did we find to do in Bruges? We first strolled the quaint streets toward the Gruuthuse Mansion where we found St. Salvatorskathedraal and just had to stop for a photo shoot.


Then we were sidetracked as we found waffles along the way.
Once we arrived to the mansion, we found out the building dates back to the 15th century and was owned by the Lords of Gruuthuse, who taxed the gruut (grain) used in brewing beer.

R standing in front of the door to the mansion to show how tall he is. :)



Outside of the Gruuthuse Mansion.



The Church of Our Lady houses the Michelangelo's Madonna and Child sculpture - one of the few pieces outside of Italy.

How can one come to Brugge and not go on a little boat tour? That was our next venture.


This is St. Janshospitaal, one of the many beautiful buildings we came across.


Floating along the way, J yells, "Hey, those swans are kissing!" Then when I was showing the picture to her later she loved that they made a heart with their necks! Lucky shot mom!

The kids also were able to see this nest along the way.


I would love to be able to tell you we walked to the center (Simon Stevin Square), sat outside in the sun, and enjoyed a lunch from a family owned restaurant that served fresh authentic Belgian food, however, it was a damp (not rainy), chilly, overcast day. The kids were pretty hungry and around my mom and dad, they usually get their way, so we ate at...

I agree. It's almost a sin to eat American food when you're trying to take in the culture, but we did eat inside where it was nice and warm. This gave us enough strength to climb the 366 steps in the Belfort. Wow - is all I have to say about that. How about a 63 year old with a 5 and 6 year old added to the mix (my mom was the only smart one of the bunch, bowing out early) climbing winding, skinny, old cement stairs with only a rope along the center post? I should have brought my inhaler, and by the way, just to prove my daughter has no number sense, at about step number 325 she tells me we have about 10 hundred more. What?


From the top we did see a beautiful view of windmills (R loved that!) and other buildings in Bruges.


The perfect ending to the day was feeling like royalty riding in the carriage around the cobblestone streets listening to the clip clop of the horses hooves.