I briefly considered including my day trip to Bruges, Belgium as part of my post on Paris but when I started to think about all the pictures I wanted to share on this post I realized I want to give it it’s own space on my blog. This historic city apparently known as the ‘Venice of the North’ is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and about 2.5 hours away from Paris, by train. We were there for just a day – a very memorable one. Here are my highlights of the day:
The buildings
After some walking around the city and urgent Belgian chocolate purchases, we took a boat tour on the canals. It was hard for me to choose between taking pictures or just gaping at the sights around me. All the colors, textures and little details on the buildings, the canals, the greenery – it was a feast for the eyes.
Click, Click
I’ve always enjoyed photography and have wanted to get better at it. I enjoy identifying subjects and looking at things from different perspectives but I may just be the dumbest person around gadgets. I tend to put off any kind of exploring and prefer to be taught hands-on before I try anything new. PK surprised me once again on this trip by signing me up with a photography tour around Bruges. Our guide, Andy took us around the city, helped us find different subjects and helped me take some of my favorite pictures of the trip. I could have even edited a couple of these to make them even better but I am lazy and don’t care to add this to the list of things I will end up procrastinating. I have a long way to go in becoming a better photographer but this was a really good start to my learning experience. I am considering taking a similar photo tour around Chicago next summer.
The oddest brewery tour
The oldest brewery in the city, “De Halve Maan” has a 45 minute tour of their brewery and they take you through the different traditional methods of brewing beer. Its almost like a beer museum meets brewery. The oddest part about the experience was that the tour goes through narrow and very steep staircases and around a total of 200+ steps. The tour wasn’t super enlightening (nothing you couldn’t get from a typical beer brewery tour) but all the staircase climbing was worth it when we got to the rooftop and got a beautiful aerial view of the city. After checking out the view we downed some beer and appetizers before we made it back to the train to Paris.
-Nish=)
Bruges was easily one of the highlights of my trip to Europe. I hadnt heard of the palce until right before I left. Was lucky to have an internet-fraand who lived there, so went over for a weekend from Belgium. I remember being so enchanted by the canals and the cobbled streets and the no-motor-zone in the heritage area. I feel like these are the things India loses out on, and which is why our places of historic interest and beauty lie mostly in shambles. We dont take pride and give heritage its due respect here, nothing beyond the textbook lipservice.
Europe as a whole, was such an aesthetically enriching experience. So much beauty even in the urban scapes, and so much care and thought given to the tiniest things like pavements, street signs, cafe fronts etc.. And Bruges was definitely high up on the scale of aesthetically balanced towns.
Gorgeous pictures!
Thanks dude. I agree with you about Indian heritage sites. My father-in-law’s home town Karkala has several heritage sites and they’re all woefully maintained. It’s a tough problem to solve. Only making private companies accountable for these sorts of sites might solve the problems. That seems to keep our malls, apartment buildings and airports in check.
Love the pics! Would enjoy visiting there some day!
Thanks Michelle! Great to hear from you – Hope you’re doing well! It is a lovely place. If you end up visiting Bruges please ask me for any help you need planning. Our photo tour guide gave us some pretty good maps and resources. If I can I’d like to go back to stay overnight. I’ve heard the canals are a pretty sight at sunset.