Bruges

It didn’t rain today! Okay, it rained for a few minutes but we were at breakfast.

We started our day at That’s Toast, a very popular breakfast place that EDP warned would be very busy. Even with a walk through Markt to get some better photos of the belfry now that it wasn’t raining, we got there about ten minutes before opening and there were no lines (three cheers for not travelling during peak season!) Even if there had been a line, it would have been worth it, my French toast was excellent. When we emerged, it definitely had been raining and I was worried I had been a little too optimistic with just wearing a sweater but the day did end up warming up a bit.

With where the restaurant was, it made sense to re-jig our plans for the day so we headed over to Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, which had a lot of restoration work being done to it but we were still able to see most of it. The church houses the only piece by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime, the Madonna and Child. When we left the church, we wandered into a courtyard that EDP had poked into while I got our tickets for the church. Happily, he had found the Bridge of Love (real name - Bonifacius Bridge), the most picturesque bridge I think I’ve ever seen. And even more happily, it took us right to the Groeningemuseum, a gallery featuring a number of impressive Flemish Primitive and Renaissance works. I really enjoyed a room of portraits, including one by Kinsoen (neither Primitive nor Renaissance, I’m afraid) of a French opera singer.

Then, it was over to Choco-Story, wandering along the canal and through Markt, until we reached the chocolate museum. Billed as an informative history of chocolate with tastings, I was really looking forward to this. When we arrived, we were handed a laminated page to guide us around and two small, plain milk chocolate bars before being sent on our way. The museum was a bit hokey, feeling like it had been thrown together with stuff found in a flea market. There were “samples” of a few kinds of chocolate throughout but they were wafers you dispensed out of a large container as opposed to a sampling with any insight. There was a delightful demonstration at the end that was almost worth the price of admission just in itself and certainly the highlight of our visit. I think it’s maybe not quite meant for a chocolate aficionado, such as myself, but rather someone who just dabbles in chocolate.

Then, after a quick stop at the hotel to grab a jacket, we headed off on a canal tour. We learned some pretty interesting facts - like that the holes in all the houses were for mail pigeons and all the bricked up windows are because people didn’t want to pay the window tax and that you get more time in prison for killing a swan than you do your mother-in-law. EDP made friends with some folks from Niagara Falls who had just ended a barge-biking tour from Amsterdam to Bruges, which has made me far more interested in biking in the region (they said the food on the boat was amazing and there were lots of stops for drinks) Then, after finally figuring out where the waffle truck we saw from the belfry, I got another Liege waffle (not as good as House of Waffles) and we headed off to a pizza place in Simon Stevinplein for lunch, where they definitely thought we were French after EDP said bonjour when we walked in - good thing we can read a French menu. That was topped off with some chocolat chaud as we headed back to the hotel to rest after clearly eating too much before heading back out for Greek just down the street from the hotel. Such good moussaka, plus we had fried feta with sesame seeds and honey that was fantastic. I think this was my first dinner without croquettes. I hope no one finds out.

We ended our day with a little walk around the Markt area, enjoying seeing the belfry all lit up. Tomorrow, it’s off to Ghent!