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 open square called the Markt, which is at its most colourful during the Christmas market (23rd November to 31st December 2007). On its south side is the bulk of the 13th-century Halle, once the main market hall built around a quadrangle. Above it towers the 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 between 5th November 2007 and 2nd January 2008. The Snow and Ice Sculpture festival in Stationsplein (Stationsquare) from 23rd November 2007 to 13th January 2008 is another reason to visit Bruges over the winter months where an impressive ice village is created by 40 professional international artists.
With a medieval hospital and numerous churches, there really is a lot to fill your time in Bruges. Wander aimlessly amidst the ancient beginage which dates back from the Middle Ages. Pretty terraced houses surround a beautiful wild garden filled with daffodils in the spring.
But 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 has some exceptional hotels, with four of Belgium's six Small Luxury Hotels of the World, but there are hotels and charming bed & breakfasts to suit all budgets and tastes. There are so many restaurants - 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.
To find out more information on Bruges and other destinations in Flanders go to www.visitflanders.co.uk.
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