Walking through Bruges, with a little stop in Gent and Louvain

It has frozen outside and I am a lucky lady to be able to sit on my couch with a cup of cocoa while listening some carols in the background.  Actually, that’s what makes me think about fairy cities.

That’s why I decided to write this week about Bruges and another two beautiful cities from Belgium, Gent and Louvain.

When I say Belgium, the first think that comes in my mind is Chocolate and then beer.  Of course, that depends on each one tastes, especially when asking the opinion from a man’s side. Most probably, you got the point of it.

Belgium is the place of the chocolate heaven because everywhere you go you smell and see chocolate, so it’s a MUST to taste the Belgian chocolate. Even more than that, you get the extra bonus if vising residents from Bruges as they may have their own home chocolate factories. People are doing their own chocolate with recipes from their ancestors. (aka grand grand grand and so grand continuing list grandpa’s). So, be sure that it will be the kind of unique experience you are going to have.

Well, as I know that there may be as well some gentlemen reading my stories around here, I would like to make them happy and say that Belgium is also the beer heaven. More specifically, people from here love the beer so much that they even built a beer pipeline. This occurred for the first time in the world and it has been inaugurated like about two years ago. Moreover, what makes it more special it is the fact it has been made from fund raising.

Let’s go through Bruges, whose historic city center is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO:

1. Grote markt. While you are walking around here you have the impression that you are in a fairytale where everything around is made of gingerbread and sweets. It is a landscape with ‘poems’ written on the buildings, poems that are transcribed on the tourist’s face. Everything gives you a positive energy and a good vibe. You are surrounded by chocolate stores, restaurants, pubs, souvenir shops and an incredible medieval architecture. Also you find Christmas shops. You have everything you ever wished for.
2. Belfry van Bruges is a medieval tower located in the south part of the central market. It has 83 m high building and 47 bells that are ringing each half hour. You have the chance to reach the top if your want to (only 336 steps) so you make your own opportunity for admiring the surroundings. The entry fee is 10 euro.
3. Mention for the beer lovers. There is a beer museum close to the Grote markt. You can pay 8 euros in which a beer degustation is included. To be honest, I haven’t visited to let the space for the right ones like men, and I went to occupy the right place for ladies, like in the chocolate factory.
4. More than that, there is also a chocolate museum. It is called Chocostory. The entry fee is also 8 euros. THEY ENCOURAGE THE EQUALLITY BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN (haha). At the beginning of the tour, you receive a small chocolate that you can enjoy during the tour (again the same story). I found out a lot of things about chocolate and how precious it is. In the 1800 the price of the chocolate was very expansive, but step by step, people had fought to make the chocolate more accessible for everybody (people rights) because chocolate means happiness and everybody has the right to enjoy it. There was a lot of chocolate that you can taste during the tour, different types of it like black, dark, milk chocolate and so on. I found out all the ingredients of a chocolate and what is supposed to contain a good one. At the end of the tour there was a show in their factory where they presented how the chocolate is made step by step. It was amazing. The good news is that if you want to buy 100% authentic chocolate, there is the right place.
5. Stadhuis is the city hall. Placed in the Burg market. This is also part of the fairy city because of his gothic arhitecture. This is one of the oldest buildings from Belgium, from 1376-1420.
6. Basiliek van het Heilig-Bloed holds a treasured relic of Christ, the blood of Jesus. The Legend says that Christ’s blood was collected in a cloth by Joseph of Arimathea following the Crucifixion.
7. The canals are another important attraction point. You can admire them or you can have a boat trip while enjoy another view of this city.
8. As well, you can just sit somewhere and admire the surroundings, eat something good, like the Belgian fries and drink a good beer.

This is my Bruges, with what I saw and what I visited. I honestly tell you that I didn’t run to the tourist attraction, because the surroundings where so great that I chose to enjoy them.  The road was great, the houses where from a fairytale and the time just flew.

After Bruges our next stop was Gent:

9. This is a place between Bruges and Bruxelles, so we couldn’t miss the opportunity to stop by in this city. It is a pity I always arrived in this city only during the evening time, so I didn’t had the opportunity to see it by the day time. But I can’t complain about the nocturnal time. I’ve been pretty impressed. The architecture is in the same style, it’s a medieval city, but different from Bruges. Bruges is more like a fairy city, but Gent is the place of a story where cavaliers are riding horses, ready to attack in any minute. I felt so maybe because of the castle Gravensteen that is placed in the center of the city.  

It is a very amazing city and I definetly recommend to you to visit it,  if you have the opportunity.

Because of the late hours, all we did In Gent was to admire and enjoy a good beer.

10. Another small city that we visited, was Louvain, which is 30 minutes away from Bruges. It is a student city. Wonderful.  I have to mention that each town in Belgium is like from a beautiful story.  I was very surprised that almost everyone was riding a bike in this city. There were also parking for bikes where you could see hundreds of bikes. No cars, so cool. We walked through the city and we admired the library they have which is a very beautiful one. The original one was burnt in the World War I and it was rebuilt in 1920. We saw a beautiful historic center, there was a festival. They were celebrating the equality between races, say no to racism, So the entire city was celebrating love. After the music from the center we went to a peaceful place, a beautiful park and then we drunk a good beer.

So, this was my experience with these amazing cities from Belgium. Places I want to go back as soon as possible. Belgium is the place where you can enjoy chocolate, beer, French fries.

It is a special place for all your senses.