Bruges

When I was planning my Belgium trip, I was debating whether or not I actually wanted to travel 2.5 hours just to visit this tiny city…but I am so glad it actually became the first place I visited! People call Bruges “The Venice of Belgium.” It’s spot on…, the place is beautiful and tranquil. It is a city, but it’s such a small city I could call it a town. Everything is accessible by foot, and it’s incredibly nice to walk around. It’s a small place, so a day is definitely enough to visit the entire city!

Most tourists are on there for a day trip, so the city is pretty empty in the morning and at night (except for certain restaurants). We arrived around 10 and the place was still pretty empty and quiet. We made our way to the Burg Square and it wasn’t crowded at all, which was super nice.

I would definitely take a canal tour (it’s 40 minutes) for a quick tour around the city. But definitely go line up before, the queues were long! The canal ride is super nice and relaxing, the guide also speaks all the different languages the passengers want! For my trip we got French, Dutch, English and Japanese! haha

If you get the chance, I would definitely visit the Beguinage, which is next to the Minnewater Lake Park. The Beguinage is actually a UNESCO heritage site. It is completely mystifying for me and just …in a way, bizarre. This place used to be residential community for women who followed this mystical movement, and they adhered to abstinence and refrained from marriage. Gave me the chills walking through this place. All the houses were painted white.

All right…now on to my favorite part of almost any trip…the food! Of course waffles are a must (though the locals tell me that it’s more of a tourist thing), and beer, and fries, and chocolate….gosh…all things good for your soul, but bad for your health pretty much just reside in this one country.

We asked the hotel for a recommendation for a good brunch place where we can get waffles. We left Paris at 7:30am and the only thing we had in our stomachs was coffee….and bad coffee too. So we looked and looked and stumbled upon this place called “Lizzie’s Waffles!”

 

They serve extra-large homemade waffles! On our first bite, the waffle was so light and fluffy we knew we should have gotten two instead of one! I definitely recommend this place. They also have a cute way of serving hot chocolate! Instead of giving you a ready made hot chocolate, they give you a glass of hot milk and your choice of a chocolate ball (dark, white, milk), then you dunk it in yourself! When we saw the table next to us do this, we ordered one for ourselves too! It’s a nice small cafe for some touristy-fun 😀 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s for dinner? My aunt found a place that’s really popular among the locals called “Ribs and Beer.”Yup…all-you-can-eat slow-cooked ribs. Need I say more? Not gonna lie…I got more than a couple refills…You have to book a couple of days in advance, and even then, you may not get a seat! They only had space for us at 6pm!

They had 4 different flavors of ribs. The traditional way, which is dry and salted. Theres smoky barbecue, spicy barbecue, and their house specialty -beer and chocolate. I’ve tried all but beer and chocolate…my aunt heard the table next to us saying that it was too rich. But all the other ones are definitely worth a try.