What to do while in Bruges

1) The Halve Maan brewery tour was undoubtedly our favorite stop. The informative, funny, English tour through their newly renovated brewery includes one free beer and a view that trumps that of the Belfort 10 times over. €7.50, tours leave hourly. Times and information here. My full tour review here.  

2) Church of Our Lady (Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk) is currently under construction; however, you can still see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child up close in a separate section for a small fee. We watched Monuments Men the day before and appreciated the statue, and the sacrifices made to save it, even more. Church entrance is free, but €2 to enter the section with Madonna and Child (fee is currently reduced due to construction). Website with address here and opening times here. 

3) The food in this city is amazing. How can you pick between Belgian chocolates, waffles, beer, and French fries? Don't! Sample them all. Though our waffles were not as good as the ones we had in Brussels, they let me eat just the dough. Weird, I know, but delicious. I was validated to hear that I am not even close to the first person to enjoy the waffle this way.



4) We were lucky enough to visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood (Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed) on a day they were offering adoration of the Relic containing Jesus' blood. This meant we were actually able to walk up to it, place our hand on it and say a prayer. The blood was collected as Joseph of Arimathea washed the dead body of Christ. It made its way to Bruges in the 12th century after the King of Jerusalem gave it to the Count of Flanders for his heroism during the 2nd Crusade. If you're lucky enough to visit Bruges on a Ascension Day (May 14 in 2015),  you can catch the Procession of the Holy Blood (Heilig Bloedprocessie), during which the Relic is taken through the city as part of a large procession. Entrance to the church (including the relic) is free. Opening times available here. Adoration is offered every Wednesday from 10:00 - 11:00 and during the Week of Prayers (May 10-17 in 2015).

5) The Markt is the beautiful market square in the the center of Bruges, and home to the Belfry (bell tower), Provincial Court, great architecture, and boat loads of tourists. Try to make out there early to avoid the latter. Skip the long lines and €8 fee at the Belfry - we waited for an hour and regretted it after seeing the included view during the tour of the Halve Maan Brewery. The view from the Belfry is obstructed by caged in windows.

6) Walk around! The city couldn't be more perfect if I plucked it out of my imagination. The canals are beautiful, there is interesting architecture everywhere, and the food is amazing. Find a place to take some pictures, but don't feel pressured to do so at the locations recommended by the guidebooks. Those were filled with tourists and not worth the struggle. Minnewater Lake is a beautiful stop, or peruse one of the markets around the city.

Bruges Spotlight: Halve Maan Brewery

Meet St. Arnold. A statue of this 6th century saint is found in breweries all over the world (ever heard of St. Arnold's Brewery in Houston??) to bless their brewery and their beer. The Halve Maan Brewery in Belgium has several, perhaps one of the reasons they are the only remaining brewery in Bruges, Belgium, a city which was once home to 28 large breweries at the turn of the 20th century.                                         I'm not sure exactly why Halve Maan flourished over the other breweries in the precious northern Belgium town of Bruges, but I do know that they do a good job of staying strong today partly due to their fantastic brewery tours. 

Living in Germany, we have been on more than our fair share of brewery tours. Though the Bruges guide books rated a trip to the Halve Maan Brewery highly, we filed it in the lower half of our to-do list when we spent the day in Bruges. After hitting many of the major sights (more to come on those later), we developed a thirst that could only be quenched by a sweet yet potent Belgian Tripel, and honestly, at €7.50 per ticket, it seemed almost like the tour was included with the beer, not the other way around!

Our 45-minute, English tour was led by a hi-larious Bruges native who really knew her stuff and had the whole group (even a hung-over bachelor party) rolling. She was hands-down the best tour guide of any tour I have ever experienced. One of the more interesting tidbits we learned from her is why the Belgian beer is so strong (the Tripel - my favorite - is 9% ABV, but the Quadrupel is a stiff 11% ABV; Budlight is 4.2%, Prosecco is 11%). Apparently when the government imposed the same tax on beer as wine, the brewers were upset: the alcohol content in wine is higher than beer, so people consume less by volume. The tax was disproportionately hurting beer prices. So what is a brewery to do?  They simply responded by brewing beers with alcohol content similar to wine. Another fun piece of Belgian beer history was our guide's account of working in the brewery in the 1950s. Employees were entitled to seven free beers a day. Clearly, it was the place to work in town. 

Another bonus of this tour is the view from the top of the brewery. Patrick and I had just waited an hour to pay €8 each for the privilege of climbing the Belfort's 366 steps for the "best view of Bruges." No one mentioned how the view was obstructed by cages covering the windows at the top. At the Halve Maan Brewery, we were treated to the below view as part of the tour - much better view at a much better price.

Fair warning: we were in Bruges at the beginning of the high season (late May), but we still bought our tickets an hour in advance. It seemed as though they filled up the tours about 15 minutes before hand. If you want to take this tour, the brewery is very close to other sights- I recommend getting your ticket ahead of time just in case! Check their English website for more information. This tour is not to be missed while in Bruges!

Belgian Surprise

In 36 hours, with the help of a wonderful friend and local tour guide, Brussels taught me that my expectations are sometimes wildly off-base. Here's how:

I thought the waffles would be like a Belgian Waffle at Breadwinners
We should have known our American waffles were inferior when we spotted the uncooked Belgian waffle - a huge heap of dough. How can we think the watery batter is acceptable? Though my skinny jeans glared at me when I took the first bite after seeing the lumps of sugar added to the dough, I chowed down on the hot waffle that literally melted in my mouth. Do not continue to live thinking that you have tasted a Belgian waffle at your favorite brunch spot. You must try the real deal for yourself.


I thought the beer would be as strong as German beer
Serious warning to future tourists in Belgium: with 10% alcohol content, those fancy-looking beers in interestingly-shaped glasses are stronger than two Bud Lights. Don't be fooled by the containers - though some are actually bottled like champagne (corks and all!), they are instead deliciously strong beers! Thanks to warnings from Mike and a lost voice on my part, we sipped carefully over the St. Patty's weekend, even after a three hour stop at Delirium...




I thought the Grand Palace would be small
I feel like I have seen quite a few of palaces and city squares throughout our journeys in Europe, but the Grand Palace was pretty remarkable. Maybe it's because I love gold, or because the whole square was so harmonious, but the square was beautiful and I can't even imagine what it looks like when the 'flower carpet' covers all 19,000 sq ft every two years. I'm penciling it in for August 2014!








I thought the Manneken Pis would be big
But I think the "Little Man Pee" is actually cuter this way! We were a little sad to see him in the nude - apparently he is dressed up several times a week in outfits ranging from Santa and Dracula to Elvis and soccer players (not an inclusive list - there are over 800 costumes!). Our friend Mike has also enjoyed a cup of Delirium beer from the fountain, which is hooked up to a keg during certain fests. Something else that is currently penciled in!



I thought we had seen a large variety of street food

But I never would've dreamed I would eat street escargot (for just €4!). Believe it or not, I tried it, and enjoyed it! I guess that's evidence of the French influence on the city, but it was still unexpected!








Honorable mention: I thought we had seen enough Kebab stands

Truth: I do not like Kebabs, but I love Patrick and he loves Kebabs so we stopped by Mike's favorite stand. They kept us thoroughly entertained, and I'm pretty sure we entertained them right back when Thomas, Patrick, and Mike were all inspired to dance after downing the kebabs - here is your evidence!