Our bicycle part of the trip officially ended this morning when the boat arrived in Bruges and we disembarked around 9:30 am and walked with Vensa to our hotel. In the meantime, new VBT guides arrive, the ship’s crew cleans the rooms, food and new bikes are loaded on board – ours go off to the shop for cleaning and maintenance – and a new set of travelers arrive around 1 pm. They will travel from Bruges to Amsterdam, just the reverse of us. It’s clockwork.

Then we start walking into town with Vensa.  Our luggage is being moved to the hotel where we will stay two nights before heading home.

Bruges is considered one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe; it managed to escape destruction in both World Wars.  One of the first things we see is the Powder Tower built in 1401 and a remnant of the old city wall.

Our walk next takes us through the Princely Beguinage Ten Wijingaerde, a complex founded in 1244 that was once the home of lay religious women, the beguiles, who wanted to live a pious and celibate life.

Today, the area is inhabited by Benedictine nuns. It includes about 30 houses and a gothic church.

We actually exited at the main entrance, which is at the Wijingaard Bridge.

This is also a city of swans.

We crossed the bridge heading into the central city.

This is a sample of the medieval buildings along the canals.

Walking towards the main square

We see lots of lace shops.

And Belgium waffle shops.

Nougat shops.

And just one of many, many chocolate shops. Ross thought every third store was a chocolate shop.

We sampled and purchased.

One of our favorite chocolate shops was this one, conveniently near our hotel.

After sleeping on the boat for a week, we really enjoyed our room at the Hotel Navarro.

Our hotel was just off the Market Square.

Prominent in the Market Square was the Belfry of Bruges with a steep staircase of 366 steps. Our group wanted to climb it so much that they waited in line for over 30 minutes and paid a fee to do so.

We also wandered by the Vismarkt or old fish market. Fresh fish has been sold at this outdoor market since the Middle Ages and still is on certain days of the week.

My priority in Bruges was to see Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child at the Church of Our Lady. The church, dating from the 13th century, is the tallest building in Bruges and the second tallest brickwork structure in the world.

The famous white marble Madonna and Child was created by Michelangelo around 1504, purchased by two merchants from Bruges, and donated to the church in 1514. It is the only sculpture of his to leave Italy during his lifetime.  During World War II the statue was taken by the Nazis and hidden in a salt mine in Austria. It was one of the artworks recovered at the end of the war as depicted in the film, The Monuments Men. 

Bruges is also a city of canals and so we did another boat tour.

With water levels high, we had to duck under some bridges.

The canals took us along more medieval buildings.

And another interesting looking medieval building.

Our first night’s dinner was at the Den Dyuer. We ate inside and thought it was a great restaurant choice.

We also ate at the well hidden Zwart Haus – which was only two blocks from our hotel.

Ross had this puff pastry concoction.

One lunch was at the pleasant Bistro De Pompe, just off Market Square.

Here we had our last waffle of the trip and it was memorable. Lots of whipped cream, strawberries, and ice cream.

And of course French Fries with mayonnaise.

After lunch, there was the traditional stop for Magnum Bars which we never found during the biking part of the trip. Jerry introduced us to these in 2005 in England. They were not available in the U.S. at that time or for several years after.  So it became a fun challenge – to find Magnum Bars in Europe when on bicycle trips.

This sign seemed to describe my journey.

Located in West Flanders, Bruges is near the coast, near Dunkirk, and other World War I sites. We very much wanted to take a day trip to one of these areas but just didn’t have enough time. Gives us a reason to come back. The most surprising aspect of this trip was the wealth we saw in Amsterdam as evidenced by the upkeep of infrastructure including public buildings and roads – much more so than at home – and the cleanliness of public places. Likewise by the way people dressed.  We also had great bicycle paths, a factor of the importance of bicycles as a mode of transportation here. Time to go home and plan another trip.