2009 Winter Holiday 4 : Bruges

Where I can still see green during the winter in Bruges
The place where you can get Bruges transport map for free, travellers' map 0.50€

Soewhere near Kruispoort ( Not only Netherland has windmills :P )

Bruges, or Brugge, whichever you like is the next destination, 15-18th January 2009. We took the rails as usual, somewhere about 11am, and within 2 hours, we were there. And just a reminder, there is only one rail station in Bruge, unlike Brussels which has Brussels Nord, Brussels bla bla bla...

The details online, of course you can have dozens. One common one is of course the WikiPedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges

We (as lucky as we had been) have a host there in Bruges. They are a married couple whose husband, Fil, came to the railway station and picked us up. He even cancelled all of his appointments for the day, just to pick us up and walked us to every single street in Bruges. In the evening, he even cooked Spaghetti for us as dinner.

He showed us the narrowest lane in Bruges, Beguinage (Begijnhof---the locals pronounced it as Be-Hey-Nov), bought us coffee, introduced us the local cuisine etc etc, and also the unbelievable cheapest spaghetti that I have known in EU countries --- 3€ per BIG plate.

Belgian endive / Chicory

I still remember a vegetable/herb that he told us about --- Belgian endive. The locals called it Chicory. They normally use it to make a salad. Chicory looks very similar to the Chinese cabbage, but is much smaller and slightly harder, even in texture, and perhaps not as leafy as it seems. For me, it has a little bit of bitterness, very very mild though.

A type of Flemish Dish

The 3€ spaghetti is very cheap and very big portion. And the place (Brasserie Medard) is fully booked especially during the lunch break. The plate of spaghetti ,I think for an average eater, can be shared among 2 person, or maybe 3. You can't believe it when you eat it. They have 2 varieties, vegetarian and meat spaghetti. But the owner doesn't allow sharing, meaning you can't order one plate when there is 2 person. And NO take aways. But I think that will be a waste of food, because we seriously couldn't finish it.

Extraordinarily big portion and cheap spaghetti

But just right opposite the 3€ spaghetti shop, is another Pasta Presto shop that is also very cheap, and the portion is just right, 2.95€. Very delicious too. You can choose different types of sauces to be eat with. But with that pasta take away, you are not allowed to eat in. Weird, isn't it? One doesn't allow eating in, and the other no take aways, hmmm...

The yummy yummy pasta, 2.95€

As we walked in Bruges, we accidently found the Chinese Take Away that Fil mentioned, the one that has Babi Panggang. And many of them thought that Babi Panggang (roasted pig) is actually Chinese words. But it is not. Babi panggang is a Chinese dish but this is in Malay language (Babi =pig, Panggang = roast). We initially thought it was a Malaysian Chinese, but she is from Hong Kong.

Saw the Babi Panggang?

The fish market is also one of the attractions. But during the winter, there isn't much stall opened (I remember only seeing 2-3 stalls on 14th January 2009). During the summer, I believe it would be flooded.

The fish market in winter.

The few winter-remaining stalls in fish market

The Beguinage is something like a convent, where the Sisters stay, is very famous. Most of them is in Belgium. One of it is in Bruges, and others can be found in Leuven (Belgium), Gent...

And as usual, Belgium cities each has its own beautiful Town Square. At the side of it is Toyo Ito's (a famous Japanese designer) piece of work --- Toyo Ito Pavillion, that costs 2 million €.

Toyo Ito's Pavillion

Around the Burg Square in Bruges

Town Square

City Hall

There are some other interesting things to do in Bruges. One of it is Canaling, but we didn't manage to as it was winter, and the river is still slightly frozen, and the canaling centres are all closed. And Fil told us, the week before our arrival, the locals can even walked on the frozen water.

See the ice on the water?

The bicycle is a common way of transport

It is also a good place if you like to cycle around and enjoy the fresh breeze of Bruges. Bicycle renting is a very common activity for the tourist. However, weather that day didn't look nice for us to travel *sigh*.

There is also the shopping streets in Bruges, one of the main ones is Mariastraat. Shops in Belgium in general close early (very early, I think), most of them closed at 6pm. I wonder when they close in the summer. From my point of view, it's not very convenient, especially for people who work and tourists. And after my sight-seeing in Bruges that ended up somewhere in the 5-6pm, I didn't manage to shop. But glad that I grabbed myself a dress just before my lunch, and that's the only shopping I did in the whole trip of Belgium.

For chocolate lovers, Belgium has the famous Belgian chocolates. From the famous established chocolate franchises to the local-favourites home-made chocolate shops. And for more, Bruges has 2 chocolate bars to offer (or maybe more, hehe).

Just some information :
Markets
Wednesday (8 a.m.-1 p.m.) on Market square (food)
Saturday (8 a.m.-1 p.m.) on 't Zand square and on Beursplein (food and non food)
Sunday (8 a.m.-1 p.m.) on Ten Briele (food and non food)
Fish market : Tuesday through Saturday, every morning.
Flea market : along Dijver and at Fish market: Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. (15th March-15th November)

Some websites for planning --- http://realtravel.com/da-1028-belgium_attractions

Bruges is a nice city of travelling.