What a waste it would be to spend our time in Brussels sitting around, eating chocolates and frites while drinking beer. Actually that sounds rather good, but we decided to get up and take in a little more of this historic country. There's a lot of history about, much of it connected by railways, so like cut-price Interailing students we packed a rucksack each and jumped on a train to Bruges!
Bruges is small in stature but large in significance, having been one of the richest and most active trading centres in Europe for several centuries. It's full of old - like, properly old - buildings surrounded by canals, via which everything was brought in and traded. Its significance dropped in the 18th Century as Antwerp grew in size, but now it's one of the country's top tourist destinations.
We started at Historium, a museum that takes you through Bruges's golden age including a nifty virtual reality medieval boat ride around the city (which allowed Pete to complain "It was better in VR" for the rest of the day). The museum is divided into little interactive scenes, where you watch an ongoing movie of a boy chasing a girl and a parrot (?) through markets, shops, and churches. There's even a stop in a steamy bathhouse that I thought might just leave things to the imagination but nope! Full frontal nudity. Welcome to Europe.
The next day we wandered through the daffodils in the 'Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaarde' where emancipated lay-women led a pious and celibate life. Just like Hannah. We then took a boat ride, sailing under low bridges we'd previously sauntered over. The whole place is a labyrinth of walkways and waterways, and this is one of the cities that rightfully claims the "Venice of the North" label.
Then it was a return train to Brussels, where we congratulated ourselves on a European mini-jaunt with only what we carried on our backs. We're young again! Now we just have to pick our next historic Belgian destination. Until then: beer and chocolates.
Bye-bye Bruges!
