Back in January I visited Belgium to start 2020 – I was invited to the Giant Panda Global Awards held in Pairi Daiza on the 3rd of January, so I added a couple of days onto my trip so that I could visit elsewhere in Belgium. I’ve been to Ghent a couple of times as I have a friend there, and I’ve also been to Bruges before on a day trip. However I went to Bruges very unprepared so I didn’t make the most of my time there, I decided I would spend the weekend in Bruges this time and I did a little research before going! After being at Pairi Daiza and getting some viewing time with the pandas of course, my friend took me back to Ghent, and then I caught the train to Bruges, so I ended up having pretty much 1.5 days in Bruges to fill. I took so many pictures on this visit, and I did so much walking around the city – so I rounded up some of my top things to do when visiting Bruges!
Visit the Markt and climb the Belfry
Pretty much in the centre of Bruges is the Markt which is a good spot to start seeing the city from. On the square itself there are a lot of options, and there are many streets leading from here to everything else you might want to see. On my visit (January 4th-5th) the Christmas Market was still open, so the centre of the square was filled with typical wooden market huts, a huge christmas tree, seating areas and decorations – it was very atmospheric! My top ‘to-do’ in the Markt area was definitely to climb the Belfry. This is one of the most iconic Bruges sites, and I think might have featured in every single Bruges travel blog post ever^ On the Saturday I arrived a little later in the day, close to lunchtime, and the queue was incredibly long – on the stairs up to the ticket office and entrance to the tower there are some signs indicating the approximate waiting time from that point, well the queue was longer than all of the signs, so I can only imagine it was over an hours wait. Instead I came back first thing on Sunday morning, it opened at 10AM I think, and I arrived at around 10:20AM, at which point the queue was at the ’30 minute wait’ point and there were maybe 25-30 people in front of me in the queue. So definitely aim for earlier in the day for a shorter wait – there is a limit to the number of people allowed up the tower at one time (50), and there are turnstiles managing this, when the capacity is reached the entrance turnstile automatically stops allowing people through, and if someone leaves via the exit turnstile, the entrance one will then let someone through. I think this is a pretty good system, and to me it was obvious how it was working but a few visitors ahead of me were getting frustrated about it. Entrance cost €12 for an adult, with various discounts available (e.g. €10 for under 25 years, but you need ID to get this), and I think this is a pretty fair cost. I also found the queue timings accurate, I was climbing the stairs approximately 30 minutes after joining the queue – and be prepared for plenty of stairs, over 350 to the top! There were a few different floors on the way up with different exhibitions and some views over the city – I took a look and break on each one, but most people headed straight for the top which is where the incredible bells are located. The bells were ringing when I was there – and across the weekend there was a mix of classical and Christmas music, and I even heard some ABBA at one point!
The views from the top were amazing, totally worth the wait in the queue, the price and all those stairs! Even on a fairly overcast January morning the sky was surprisingly clear and I could see for miles. It was quite a small space at the top for the number of people up there, but I didn’t have a problem taking my time to get pictures from all around the tower. I love these pictures I took of the view, I love seeing all of the orange tiled roofs of the city, and there were great views of the various churches around the city. From the top there was also a birds-eye view of the Burg Square which is in front of the City Hall – this square also had a nice christmas tree, but a little later in the day it was filled with people as there was some sort of beer festival going on. I spent around 30 minutes in the tower and I felt like I had a good amount of time. I would comment that there is only one staircase up and down, so there were a few points which involved squeezing past visitors going the opposite way, when I went down I tagged along with another group of girls instead of going on my own. I wouldn’t say I’m an unfit person, but my legs were aching after making it back down the the ground – there are plenty of cafes and restaurants around the Markt for a break afterwards though!
Also on the Markt is the Bruges Historium Museum where there are a few different activities that you can do – including a virtual reality experience and another tower that you can climb. I gave the tower a miss as I don’t think my legs had it in them to go up so many stairs again, but I’d do it next time as an alternative to the Belfry. There is also a beer cafe in here on the first floor which had a great design, the atmosphere seemed super cosy, so if beer is your thing it might be interesting. What I did do here was take the Historium Story tour which guided you through some of the history of Bruges based around the painter Jan Van Eyck. I found this really interesting, and I think it would be a great activity for families to do, I would have loved this as a kid! It was a walkthrough tour, at the entrance the staff gave you an individual headset (with different languages available), and doors through the exhibit would open at the right time in the recording on the headset to take you through the story. I didn’t take any pictures of or in the Hisorium, but at the end of the story is a great balcony viewpoint over the Markt which is good for pictures too.
Walk from Kruispoort to Dampoort and see the windmills
Seeing windmills wasn’t actually on my list when arriving in Bruges, however on my first night I had a look over the free map I received at my hotel and spotted them on the outskirts of the city and thought that might be something interesting and different to do. So after seeing the huge queue for the Belfry on Saturday, after lunch I strolled through the streets and headed to the east of the city towards the Kruispoort Gate – from the Markt area this walk took 30 minutes, but I was going at a slow pace and enjoying taking photos of the quant streets. The Kruispoort Gate is one of the old gateways to the city, these gates are spaced around the outside of the city and sit inside a surrounding canal way. Along this side of the city there are 4 different coloured windmills (I’m all for a pink windmill!) which you can walk right up to on pedestrian paths – they’re set in a very nice peaceful almost park environment, whilst there were some cyclists and other tourists around, it was very quiet compared to the city centre. One of the mills is open to the public as a museum, not when I went, but I think it would be interesting to see inside. The others had different purposes, including grinding flour and corn.
Around halfway of my walk along the old ramparts of the city was this adorable cafe, De Windmolen, I love the bright yellow colour, but sadly it was closed on Saturdays which was when I was there, this is very typical for me, it often happens! I would have stopped here for sure, the pictures on TripAdvisor look great. At the end of the 4 windmills you end up close to the Dampoort and from here I walked along one of the main canals flowing into the city centre. This is a very nice free activity that you can do in Bruges! If I only had one day, I probably would have skipped it, but with some extra time I enjoyed something slower paced on my schedule.
Walk the canals
You don’t have to walk far in Bruges to come across a canal! Waterways run across the centre of the city and have a few branches in different directions, and they’re very popular – I think every one I stopped at maybe had 10 other tourists also stopping and posing for photographs. I find they bring such a peaceful vibe to a place. Boat tours are very popular too, there are a few different companies with different starting points and durations that you can take – I haven’t been on one, so don’t have a specific recommendation but I’m sure they are all fairly similar (also suffer from sea sickness, I’m too afraid to even try for a little boat tour on what looks like a calm canal!).
With the plenty of time that I had, I think I might have explored along most of the canals and waterways – there are bigger and smaller widths and some more ‘off the beaten track’ ones in more residential areas of the city. It would be so lovely to have a house there with a garden right by the water, although I do wonder if there are high rates of flooding if there is a lot of rain. Paired with having many canals, there are also a lot of bridges in the city with a range of different styles, I really like the wooden lifting style of this one in the picture above, the Duinenbrug. But I think the most famous bridge would be the Bonifaciusbrug which is a narrow pedestrian bridge at the Church of Our Lady Bruges. It’s in a beautiful garden setting surrounded by beautiful buildings, I can see why it’s so popular!
I must have easily taken over 100 pictures of various canals and bridges, they’re just so picturesque. Whilst many of them are alongside busy roads, plenty are also in quieter areas where there are benches so that you can sit and enjoy the view.
Visit the Begijnhof
I have been to the Begijnhof in Amsterdam and it’s very beautiful to visit, so I definitely wanted to stop into the Begijnhof in Bruges too, particularly as it was only a few minutes from my hotel. It seems much larger in Bruges than Amsterdam, and actually I think there were also more visitors here in Bruges – the Amsterdam Beginhof is quite ‘tucked away’ in comparison, you really need to know it’s there to find one of the entrances. While in Amsterdam it still contains private residences for women, here in Bruges it is primarily a convent. The church is the centre piece, however the surrounding buildings are also detailed in a traditional style that I saw across the city. The church is open, and when I visited there was a service going on which was interesting to watch even if I couldn’t follow along with what was happening. Since visiting I have now seen there is also a small museum here which is set up as the houses would have been in the 17th century.
Just outside of the Begijnhof is an area that I kept seeing cropping up when I was doing my research, which was this small half-grassy area which is covered in swans! I’m still not sure if this is a important area, but it was quite something to see so many swans in one place, and they attracted as many tourists as other places around the city. Also in this area it seemed to be a starting point for many of the horses and carts, the ‘drivers’ would feed and brush the horses here and there were at least 10 pairs of horses here when I saw them.
Wander through the streets
Bruges is such a beautiful city with a mix of great architecture and quant design – I really like the pairing of both, with grand buildings and then adorable colourful streets of houses. There were still Christmas decorations on some buildings when I was there which were extra pretty^ My favourite feature of is definitely the stepped style to the roof (I’m sure there is a technical name!), it just looks so unique and stands out to me, likely because it’s not a style I’ve seen here in Scotland. I’m also a big fan of the coloured houses, especially the pink ones I saw, they look great and still fit in with the style of the streets very well – which I’m impressed by! The details on so many of the homes was also stunning, many had small murals on the wall or ornate door frames, and many buildings had small alcoves built into the corner or side of the wall with statues inside – some of these were religious, but I’m not sure on their importance, I definitely should learn more about this.
Walking around also meant coming across unexpected places – I stumbled upon this small neighbourhood park (the Koningin Astridpark) which I suspect is very popular in the Summer with the fountain, large expanse of grass and a pretty gazebo. One side of the park had an eye catching black fronted building, it completely stood out amongst the pale houses in the street, and the gold ornate details really popped. There was also a large church at one end of the park, which is another thing, Bruges is filled with churches! Most of them were open for visitors, although I came across a few that had nice architecture but were fenced off for any visitors. If churches are your thing, then you will have plenty to fill your time in Bruges.
Getting to Bruges
Bruges is in West Flanders in the Flemish part of Belgium, and overall it’s very easy to get to. I travelled to Bruges from Ghent, which was around 20 minutes on the train – and that was around 8PM on a Friday night in January. I bought a ticket at the station and it was checked on the train, but you can buy one online in advance. At the end of my stay I was flying from Brussles, again I took the train there which involved one switch at Brussels Midi – both of these trains were very busy, but it was a Sunday afternoon. This took somewhere between an hour and an hour thirty. Driving would also be possible to and from Bruges, however I’ve not had any issues with the public transport and it got me to and from where I needed to be.
Where to stay
I’d booked quite last minute, so thought there might not be many options available, but there were plenty of hotels! I stayed in the Hotel Academie on Wijngaardstraat, which is quite central to the main area of Bruges, and around a 15 minute walk from the train station. I really had a great stay – check in was very easy, even later at night, and the receptionist marked several recommended spots on a handy tiny fold up map (including the Christmas markets, which is the sort of information I like^). I booked a standard room, and it was very generously sized, very spacious for one. The bed was also huge and very comfy which I thoroughly enjoyed! The bathroom was also pretty big. Breakfast was available for a supplement, but I didn’t take it so can’t make a comment. The location was pretty perfect for me, there were plenty of cafes and restaurants in the nearby streets, and the walk to the Markt took around 10-15 minutes. I would definitely stay here again.
I really had a great weekend in Bruges to start 2020 off! I’d highly recommend a visit if you are in Belgium – while there’s plenty to do to fill a weekend, it’s also a perfect city for a slower paced holiday. And there are so many more places in Belgium that I would love to visit, I can’t wait to be back again.
