The Best of Bruges!

Winter is the perfect season to experience Bruges when there are few other visitors and when hotels are offering special low prices. There are no queues to ascend the belfry, you can stand alone for five minutes in front of a Bosch painting, and you can almost be assured of a table at the best restaurants without booking ahead.

Most visitors begin their exploration of Bruges in the large central Markt square. On its south side is the bulk of the 13th-century Halle, once the main market hall built around a quadrangle. Above it towers an impressive belfry, a symbol of municipal power and prestige. It’s well worth climbing its 366 narrow steps for the unrivalled view over the city and to see the feverish activity on the hour when an enormous brass drum with pegs in square sockets, like a giant musical box, triggers 47 bells into musical activity.

A few steps from the Markt is a smaller square, the Burg, on which the city’s cathedral once stood until demolished by French troops during the Napoleonic Wars. Here you will find the Stadhuis which is Belgium’s oldest Gothic town hall as well as the Brugse Vrije and the Basilica of the Holy Blood which dominate corners of the square.

Most of the paintings that once hung in the vanished cathedral are now in Bruges’ finest collection at the Groeninge Museum, which is one of five separate collections forming the Museums of Fine Art but there are over a dozen other museums, devoted to diamonds, lace, folklore, archery, windmills, archaeology and Belgium’s irresistible chocolate. In fact, The Choco-Story Chocolate Museum is a must and will serve up interesting answers to all your chocolate questions, immersing you in the fascinating 2,500-year history of this delicacy. The Gruuthuse Museum also comes to life over the winter season with a series of intimate concerts and exciting spectacles.

With museums, churches, shops, cafes and sop many other places of interest, there really is a lot to fill your time in Bruges. Wander aimlessly amidst the ancient beguinage which dates back from the Middle Ages. Pretty terraced houses surround a beautiful wild garden filled with daffodils in the spring.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest pleasures of Bruges is simply wandering among its historic buildings and admiring the wonderful brickwork, spires, pinnacles, turrets, crow-stepped gables and dormers and the common little touches such as the stone letterboxes set within the brickwork of many of the houses. It’s no wonder that the whole of the historic city is ranked a UNESCO world heritage site. If your feet need a rest, you can take a boat trip through the canals for a different perspective.

With so many visitors, it is no surprise that Bruges also has some exceptional hotels, but there are many others besides to suit all budgets and tastes. There are so many restaurants too – over a hundred – that there is a 122-page booklet devoted to them, helping you find a medieval banquet, dishes using Belgium’s wonderful beers, vegetarian food, haute cuisine or any number of national restaurants besides Flemish. The Half Moon brewery offers guided tours, followed by a visit to the tap-room, but if that hasn’t enough variety, De Garre in an alley off Breidelstraat between the Markt and the Burg has over 300 beers on offer.

Bruges is a truly wonderful short break destination which never disappoints, and easily accesible from the UK by both car and rail.

To find out more information on Bruges and other destinations in Flanders go to www.visitflanders.co.uk.

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