Friday 19th October - Bruges

It's friday, it must be Belgum! Friday saw us dock in Zeebruge and then visit Bruges. Let me tell you why you should consider living in Bruges - they have architecture (didn't see much in Amsterdamto compare with the prominent neo-gothic style - apart from the concert hall which the guide told us only about ten times that everyone in Bruges hates!!). Also they have loads and load of breweries and beer they love - we had a tour of the Half Moon Brewery museum which finished in sampling the produce, which was nice. Also the Belgians can't be touched for chocolate production - there are literally hundreds of chocolate shops in Bruge - how cool is that. Finaly you can cycle everywhere - only downside is that any golf courses would be very boring!

Back to the day, we toured Bruge by Canal first in a great long boat and then by foot culminating in the trip to the brewery. The boat tour highlighted the many bridges around the town while the tour on foot gave us an opportunity to see the town centre and it's many shops, restaurants and bars. We also saw the Old St Johns Hospital which our guide made numerous mentions of Hospital and Hospitality as apparently only ten per cent of people staying there were patients, most of the others were pilgrims staying there.

I've sort of counted the brewery trip as exercise as it involved climbing over 230 stairs!! However, it was darned informative too, we saw the basic ingredients, the brewing process and were really entertained by the Brewing Museums guide who was a bit of a card. We ended up at one point out on the roof so I took a few pics from up there. A couple of beers were taken before heading back to the Oriana. The previous day getting back from Amsterdam took ages, such is the amount of traffic hitting the port but it was a smooth trip back fromm Bruge.


Links:- Half Moon Brewery. http://www.halvemaan.be/e/geschiedenis.htm


View from top of the Half Moon brewery.

Another view from top of Half Moon Brewery


Tour of Bruge by boat. Note - stepped gable ends - big in Bruge!


A wooden construction building which were at one time very typical in Bruge.

The Cathedral - built over 200 years by five generations of masons from bricks - puts the rapid construction times of the modern day into perspective.

Look at all the folks on bikes again - it's the only way to travel in cities I tell you!


Two of the many bridges of Bruge


Look at the dreamy spires in the distance

Those spires close up!