Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium, is a wonderful old city. We were up and ready to go on our tour at 7:45am this morning. We had a great bus driver and tour guide for the morning as we drove from the port to town.


       
There are many canals in Bruges.

  
The Hospital of St. John dates back to 1181.

  
Church of Our Lady.

            

  
Some really neat door and window openings.




            
Intricate buildings and designs.

 


   
This is the Belfry or Halles Tower, which dates back to the 13th century.




Town Hall


The Old Recorder's House is located to the right of Town Hall. This building is typical Flemish Renaissance in style.




















The Blinde Ezelstret (Blind Donkey). It reminds me of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice and, with the canals, it's no wonder they call Bruges the "Venice of the North."

We also took a canal ride, while not as neat as a gondola ride, it is still rather quaint.

  

   

During our canal ride we saw many bridges.

  



After our canal ride we had some free time for shopping and, of course, trying Belgian chocolate.

Oh my goodness but the chocolate is so smooth and creamy.

  

   


We purchased some chocolate but I'm sure it won't make it home.

We headed back to our bus and then back to the ship. We have a 3:00 pm departure from Bruges, Belgium, we go around Denmark and stop in Germany. Tomorrow is a sea day to give us time to get there.

This port is a real working port. There are more containers here than I've ever seen.

  
This picture from our balcony at all the cargo containers.

We had a nice lunch when we came back to the ship and while it's a formal night here tonight, we're just going to be lazy and hang out here and there. If we get hungry again, we'll head back to the cafeteria.

I don't know if I'll post tomorrow or not, it depends on what happens. We'll see.

Until next time...