Bruges, Belgium

I’m not sure what to think of this small medieval town that so many have raved about, and others told us to avoid.  I give Bruges (or Brugge in Dutch) a “meh” score.  There are certain aspects of the city that I appreciate and wish I could see in more depth, but there were others that made me want to leave after one day.

Bruges is a medieval city in western Belgium that has been largely preserved since the 15th century.  It has stunning architecture, romantic canals, cobblestone streets and is a designated UNESCO world heritage site.  This is also the city’s biggest problem.  Everyone knows this so it’s choke full of tourists and it’s hard to tell if any of the city is authentic or if the whole city was created by Disney as some kind of entertainment venue.

 

 

We stayed in an Airbnb on the north east side of the city.  If you haven’t stayed in an Airbnb, especially if you travel with children, you need to start now.  It is so much nicer than staying in hotels.  You can sign up for an Airbnb account here.  Our attic apartment was on the third floor of a family house in a residential area.  When I say residential, I don’t mean the detached single family homes you’re thinking of.  I mean old, old homes that are adjacent to one another and look like they’ve been around for hundreds of years.  The apartment had two bedrooms, a living area, kitchenette and a nice bathroom.  I loved the windows and the views of the city from that high up.  The kids loved spotting hot air balloons (Ben would say “Hot balloon, hot balloon” and excitedly jump up and down) each evening and sometimes early in the morning and I enjoyed watching the sun set and the churches light up at night.  The major downside of the apartment was that it happened to be very hot when we visited and there was no air conditioning (this is normal), but since we were on the top floor it was very, very warm.  We slept with our windows open, but that resulted in Ben being eaten alive by mosquitoes – seriously, he still looks like he has the measles.  His baby fat must be tasty, because the rest of us only have a handful of bites.  I’m not sure why the mosquitoes bothered us in Belgium but haven’t in the Netherlands – we sleep with our windows open every night in Amersfoort as well and haven’t had any issues.

 

 

 

A few of my general observations of Bruges are:

• I don’t like the Markt (the square in the middle of town).  It’s way too big so it didn’t have a cozy feel like the squares in Amersfoort (where we’re staying in the Netherlands) do.  It is lined with tons of restaurants that all seemed very touristy.  On one side of the square I saw a Burger King, so that pretty much confirmed that I did not like this square since there was an American fast food restaurant present.
• The architecture is amazing.  I would have loved to take a photography tour where a local shows you cool spots to take pictures and spend an entire afternoon walking around with the sole purpose of taking beautiful photos.  I was also sad we didn’t get out after dark to take any pictures of the city lit up at night.
• There are too many cars in the old town.  There is still a ton of traffic within the old town and the vast majority drives way too fast for the narrow cobblestone streets filled with pedestrians, bikes, and other people who don’t know where they are going.  There are several streets here that should be shut down to cars completely.
• There are too many people.  Way too many people.  It’s like a cruise ship docked in the middle of the Markt and a billion people got off.
• There’s not enough green space.  I love trees, flowers, and water.  It felt like the entire city was cobblestone streets and sidewalks and buildings.
• The church bells are always ringing.  Always.  It’s not just on the hour or half hour or quarter hour, it seems like it’s every two minutes.  And they play songs every night at 9 p.m.  Hey, people of Bruges…aren’t your kids trying to sleep too?

 

Since we were traveling with the kids, this trip was focused on activities that would be family friendly.  If just Brian and I had been alone on this trip, we probably would have spent a lot more time bar hopping, eating out and visiting chocolate shops.  Instead, these were the activities we did with the kids:

Boat Tour.  The narrow canals that meander through Bruges make the city charming and also provide a great way to see the great architecture and have some fun while doing so.  This is a great activity for kids as pretty much every kid thinks boats are cool.  The tours are closely regulated by the city, so there is only one spot to board the boats and everyone receives the same 30 minute tour.  I had to sit in the middle seat on the boat, so it was hard for me to take pictures without someones head in the way.  The tour was fun – just the right amount of history and corny jokes.  I like doing some kind of general sight-seeing tour like this right after arriving in a city because it gives you a good overview of where things are and helps you figure out which areas you want to visit on your own.

 

 

 

Windmills and Water.  One of my favorite places has been the green space surrounding the old city and adjacent to the canal.  There is a nice path for bicycling and walking, lots of big trees for shade, a few windmills dotting the landscape and a canal adjacent to the path.  We biked this route and had picnics here on two different occasions.  One time, we picnicked near the Kruispoort (old castle-looking entrance to the city with a drawbridge) and the bridge opened to let two giant boats go through.  The kids loved it.

 

 

 

Choco-Story: The Chocolate Museum.  I love chocolate.  Brian loves chocolate.  Who doesn’t love chocolate?  We were destined to visit this kid-friendly  museum as soon as we read in one of the guide books that there was all-you-can-eat samples during your visit.  Sold.

The museum is definitely a bit cheesy, but there were actually some interesting exhibits describing the history of chocolate that history fanatics like Brian and I found interesting.  The museum also had this cocoa bean mascot that definitely looked like the poop emoji.  There were stuffed animals that looked like this thing at the end of the tour and Jack wanted to buy one.  I couldn’t do it.  The museum was really good for the kids.  They enjoyed the free samples (dark chocolate is (usually) dairy free – yeah for Jack!) and there were Lego dioramas depicting history/scenes in the chocolate making process intended for kids at their eye level.  They also had coloring stations in a few different locations so the kids could color a picture while we read the exhibits and stuffed chocolate into our mouths out of their sight.

 

Folklore Museum.  The city guide described this museum as “dedicated to the occupations that kept Bruges huming through its industrious golden age.”  We went here because it was noted as kid friendly, was 2 blocks from our Airbnb, and we needed something quick to do one morning before lunch.  Turned out to be a good idea.  There were 20 little rooms decorated to reflect the various occupations (cobbler, grocer, pharmacist, tailor, etc) of people who lived in Bruges 100+ years ago and a written guide, in English, that you could reference as you walked through each room.  Jack was a good age for this activity because he was actually interested in hearing about what was going on in each room and I had fun explaining it to him.  It’s cool to watch him learn and be interested in history.  There was also a courtyard with old games for the kids (or adults) to try and a little cafe to get a drink and a snack.  Ben did great at this museum – he rode happily in the backpack carrier for the first half of the tour, got out and played in the courtyard for awhile, and then was happy to get back in the backpack for the rest of the tour.  Parenting win.

 

 

 

Biking.  We didn’t plan to rent bikes when we arrived in Bruges.  I figured we’d use the backpack carrier (Beco Gemini – I have LOVED this carrier from the infant through toddler stage) for Ben and Jack would be able to walk around the compact town.  Not.  The first night we arrived, we walked for maybe 4 minutes to get to dinner and Jack was already complaining about how tired he was.  So that night we Googled bike rental companies, found one that had child seats (for free!) and walked there first thing in the morning to rent bikes for the rest of our trip.  That was a good decision.  It was much easier to see the city and the kids were a lot happier.

There are two downsides to biking in Bruges vs. the Netherlands.  1) I’m glad our Airbnb had a place inside to store our bikes.  Unlike the Netherlands, you hardly see anyone storing their bikes outside here.  There’s no room on the skinny sidewalks.  Everyone brings their bike in the front door of their house/apartment and puts it somewhere inside.  The family who owns the Airbnb where we’re staying has 4 young kids, no car, and several bikes parked inside the entrance to their house.  2)  Biking feels a lot more dangerous here.  The city doesn’t have dedicated bike lanes and although most of the roads are one-way for cars (bikes can go both ways on most streets), traffic moves too fast and the roads are too narrow that it just doesn’t feel very comfortable.

 

Playgrounds.  We visited two playgrounds while were in Bruges – one of which we stumbled upon one day while biking and the other Google told us to visit when I looked up “playgrounds in Bruges”.  At the first playground, Koningin Astridpark, there was a giant climbing structure, but it wasn’t a good park for Ben because everything was too big for him to climb.  The other side of the playground had sewer pipe tunnels (I guess these are popular in Belguim and the Netherlands…I’m sure they are other places too) and the boys had a great time exploring and playing hide and go seek.  Too bad they came out super dirty…so much for re-wearing those shorts on this week-long trip.

The second playground we visited was at Graaf Visartpark on the west side of Bruges just outside the old city.  I liked this park best.  It was nice and shaded and had cool playground equipment all made out of logs and creative ropes and nets and other stuff to climb/swing on.   Another observation about playgrounds in the Netherlands and Belguim – they all have sand.  No wood chips, rubber mats, pea gravel or shredded tires.  Just sand.  Because of this, my kids have had dirty feet for weeks.  We also met some very friendly Belgians at this park who shared some homemade chocolate croissants with us….yum….

 

Eating.  Eating in Bruges has been annoying.  Not only is everything super expensive, but what we’ve had so far just hasn’t been that good.  The first night here I paid 14 Euros for a ham and cheese sandwich with a small salad.  It was literally two pieces of grilled white bread with a slice of ham and a slice of cheese.  That should be 6 Euros.  It’s also been difficult to find food Jack can eat (he has dairy, nut and egg allergies) and the options we have had he hasn’t been very keen on eating.  So, we decided to spend our money on experiences and beer in Bruges and eat a lot of grocery store food.  After this week, I am going to be really sick of ham and PB&J sandwiches, granola bars, cereal and fruit.

 

I’m glad we visited Bruges because I had heard a lot of hype about the city and I wanted to see what it was all about.  But in the end, I just wasn’t a big fan of this city.  There are better, less touristy cities in Europe worth spending time in.