What a perfect little medieval city! For sure one of the most picturesque places I've seen. So many bridges and canals, half the city is made up of parks, and there are swans...'nuff said.
In two days I became a regular at this cafe:
Some of the bridges were castles in and of themselves:
And the city is replete with tiny alleyways to explore:
Oh, and this was my other regular perch:
Bruges is a jumble of different styles of architecture, most of which they call neo-gothic but there are some Roman buildings thrown into the mix.
The Jerusalem Church, with the sun and moon on either side:
A genuine medieval crane built by students based on original blueprints. Apparently some aristocrat way-back-when complained that it spoiled his view, so he set it on fire ha.
Bruges used to be full of windmills - many of them were used to mill grain - but now there are only four, kept for historic interest.
Swans!
They even have their own little ramps to and from the water...
Baby can't quite figure out the ramp-concept, so Mama jumped back in to demonstrate...it still took baby a few more tries. Too adorable for words...
How envious am I of these canal-side terraces and gardens...
On that table there is an open book and a bottle wine - it couldn't be more perfect.
The funniest thing I heard about Bruges is that they once had an excessive rat problem (which of course reminded me of Molly Shannon - just watch it, it never stops being funny...).
So, as the story goes, the canals were riddled with giant mutated rats (that's right lol) apparently due to the nearby nuclear plant, so the experts decided to bring in a crocodile to deal with this fish-and-swan-killing infestation. It worked, and the crocodile is still kept in one of the harbours in case the rats return. How hilarious is that?
I'm kinda sad to leave Bruges, it's so godamned pretty. But there is more of Belgium, and I've got an early train...
No comments:
Post a Comment