Published: 04/16/2009
BRUGES, Belgium – The view from the top of the Belfry was astounding. Buildings like gingerbread houses, perfectly preserved from the days of knights and damsels in distress. Medieval churches, monasteries, castles and convents. Shimmering canals dotted with boats and speckled with white swans. Far in the distance, the blue horizon of the North Sea.
Bruges: the Venice of the north. One of the most well-preserved medieval cities in all of Europe, home to windmills, canals, breweries, a Michelangelo statue and an alleged vial of Jesus Christ’s blood. The most picturesque place I have ever been.
Greeted by drenching rains upon my arrival the previous evening by train from Brussels, the green gardens and lush willows of Bruges would have made any Pacific Northwest evergreen envious.
Located in the Flemish region of northern Belgium, Bruges is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, and a major UNESCO World Heritage site. A quick bus ride from the train station to the city center, Market Square, and it’s not hard to see why.
Dominated by the 272-foot-tall Belfry – built and rebuilt three times between 1240 and 1822 – and the equally impressive (and ancient) Town Hall, the square is awash in camera-toting sightseers at all hours of the day. Nowhere have I felt less like a vagabond backpacker and more like a run-of-the-mill tourist, but for once I was content to join their ranks. Luckily, only a few steps down any cobblestone side street and you could return to Bruges’ dreamy, forgotten-in-time aura.
My first full day in the city began with breakfast in our hostel: Charlie Rocket’s. My favorite travel residence to date due to its classic rock soundtrack, Americana wall ornaments and Belgian supermodel hostess, Charlie Rocket’s was a steal at $20 a night.
Distance in Bruges is not measured in miles or metro stops, but in minutes walking. At most 20 minutes to anywhere in the small city, it’s a quaint convenience worth taking advantage of.
Leaving the breakfast table, my friends and I strolled through town, visiting the Half Moon Brewery for a tour and tasting, crossing daffodil gardens to one of the oldest convents in Europe, snacking on Belgian waffles and viewing Michelangelo’s “Madonna with Child” under the enormous brick spire of the Church of Our Lady. Due to a mass in progress, we were turned away at the Basilica of the Holy Blood and unable to glimpse the fabled vial of Christ’s blood, looted in Jerusalem and brought back to Bruges during the Crusades.
After 366 narrow, creaking, wooden stairs that seemed not to have been repaired in centuries, I was drinking in the panoramic views of this fairy-tale city and the surrounding Belgian countryside from the top of the Belfry.
Maybe I’m cursed by my open mind into loving every new place I go – every fresh city and passport stamp – but nowhere has struck me with the same simplistic charm as Bruges. Nowhere else has made me feel as relaxed and at ease, while still fully expecting a band of knights in shining armor to come galloping around the bend.
Someday in life, get to Bruges. Bring your drinking buddies and sample the world’s finest beer. Bring your wife and kids to float down willow-lined canals among an armada of swans. Bring your Bible and pray before Michelangelo’s Madonna and Christ’s blood (if you’re into that kind of thing, I’m more of a religious neutral observer). Leave your fear of heights and make the trek up the Belfry. You may arrive at the top gasping for breath, but it will be worth every step.
Just don’t climb the windmills. The Bruges police don’t take that very well.
http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/28533#
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