Onward to Bruges

The next day of the trip was one spent partly in transit to Bruges, Belgium. This photograph below was taken at a train station in Ghent (Gent) where we needed to transfer. The train below I believe was a "local" we were on a more long-distance, high speed line. We rushed through Centraal station in Amsterdam but had enough layover in Ghent to grab some drinks and croissants before heading on the next leg of the journey. When we arrived in Bruges we had a little bit of difficulty figuring out what side of the train station to exit to go towards the center of the town. Once we managed to ascertain that this was the street that took us towards our destination. Aside from the cars, it was other worldly, very medieval looking and serene (a nice change from Amsterdam).

Our trek was not without obstacles, while our hotel wasn't terribly far from the train station, we underestimated the difficulty of towing our suitcases down the cobblestone, and we did manage to get a little lost on the way. As you move further into the town the roads get pretty windy, and intuition isn't going to get you far. We didn't have a good map, and were getting side tracked frequently, because the signage on the old streets was hit or miss.

The video here is a church that we stumbled upon while searching for the hotel. It was a nice distraction. I wanted to try and capture the experience that was the Bruges streets so I recorded this short clip of the bells. Note the horse hooves hitting the cobblestone in the background.This is heading towards the main square in Bruges, the tower ahead is the city hall.

One of Bruges canals, strikingly different than those in Amsterdam, they are narrower generally and often have vegetation and gardens wedged between the water and buildings. Another canal below in a more residential area.

There was a carnival going on in Bruges which was sort of interesting. I can imagine some people might have been put off if they were coming there for the untouched old world atmosphere, but Kate & I felt it added to the experience, as it seemed to be primarily attended by locals, and not tourists.

I'll start off the next post with the hotel, and then finish it out with our continued touring of Bruges.