Tommy Nankervis

Trip to Brugge

// May 29th, 2009 // A Day Down Under

Howdy readers! With the last post being a bit of a nothing post, I have had to get out and find a bunch of interesting things to do. I hope I still have a good number of readers, so if you do still read, be sure to leave a comment! There have been some new “comment writers”, so that is great, thankyou. Also, thanks (or “bedankt”, Dutch for “thanks”) to the others who regularly comment so as I know people still read this!

So Keally and I headed over to the amazing Belgian city of Brugge, or Bruges, or whichever language you speak. It is a stunning place, with amazing old buildings, miles and miles of canals, and cobbled streets everywhere. There is a nice big town square where everyone heads out to the restaurants and cafes, and the famous clock tower, the Belfry of Bruges.

I think the thing that makes Brugge so amazing and scenic, is that the city has done it’s best to preserve it’s historic feel, and all the renovations on old buildings and roads have been done to keep things traditional.
So being the lazy cyclist that I am, and avoiding any excessive walking, I thought it would be best if we hire out a tandem bicycle down this laneway:

It turned out to be a great idea, as we were able to do about three different 90 minute walks, in less than an hour. Thanks to my brother Michael, and his girlfriend Katie for the tourist guide book, as it worked really well. Keally went on the back, reading out the directions, sights, and using the map, while I was up front, steering, and in charge of the photography as we went barrelling along! It was a great way to get around, and it is a very cyclist friendly city. The bike itself was completely pathetic, hardly even working, and Keally’s seat was very broken, but none-the-less, it was a fun and interesting way to make to most of our time! Here is a picture of us in front of the Belfry of Bruges, on the tandem.

This photo is cool, with one of the many canals in the background, because it looks as though we are riding on a boat along the water. We aren’t though, we are riding the tandem!

This is a typical Brugge scene. Everywhere you look along the canals, there are sights like this.

I love all of the old buildings packed together in Belgium, right up against the footpath, and getting as close to the water of the rivers and canals as possible. Everything is so old, and the streets are still paved with cobbles rather than with asphalt.

Here is the big tower in the heart of Bruges, the Belfry of Bruges. For anyone who has seen the movie, In Bruges, with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, this is where the guy falls from the top of the tower, down into the square. If you haven’t seen the movie, it is quite good, and strangely funny!

Here we are after the long walk up the steep, steep stair-case, which you could also maybe even describe as somewhat of a ladder! It is so steep and old and twisty, and almost scary to think how they were able to build such an amazing building so many centuries ago…

… and here is the view from the top of the tower, looking down into the sqaure, with all the cafes and restaurants . This is the view straight down at the same things as in the first photo of this post, up the top. It is amazingly high!

We had a great trip over to Bruges, and were really happy to see the place that so many people speak of when referring to the tourist side of Belgium. I would highly recommend a visit there for anyone visiting Europe.

We also had a HUGE celebration for Keally’s brithday on Friday. It would surely have been the biggest birthday celebration she has had, that’s for sure! She specially chose this Winnie the Pooh cake, and the candles, but we didn’t have a lighter to light the candles, and the shops were shut, so we just had to sing with no lit candles! Happy Birthday anyway!

The Bruges canals are now exclusively used for tourist boats. There are five families that are allowed to organise tourist excursions by open boats on the canals. Each family has 4 boats.