Day 027 - In Bruges 🇧🇪🍟

Day 027. A sunny day trip to Bruges, an easy train ride from Gent-Sint-Pieters. I spend all day quoting In Bruges to myself. We start in the Markt, the medieval main square ringed with stepped-gable guild houses, and crane our necks at the Belfort, the 13th-century belfry that still looms 83 metres over the city and has been keeping time and sounding alarms since long before any of it was a tourist attraction. From there we walk to the Begijnhof, a walled courtyard of whitewashed houses founded in 1245 for the beguines, women who lived in a religious community without taking full vows. It's Benedictine nuns there now, and it is remarkably quiet given how many people are in the city. Just beyond it is the Minnewater, the Lake of Love, with its swans, which Bruges has kept by law since the 15th century. We also visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood on the Burg, a small two-level church housing a relic said to hold a cloth with the blood of Christ, brought back from the Holy Land in the 12th century. The lower Romanesque chapel is stark and dark; the upper one is anything but. The boys get their reward at the playground in Koningin Astridpark, a leafy Victorian-era park with a bandstand and ponds, tucked a few streets off the tourist route. And of course, frites. 📍 Today's stops Markt and the Belfort of Bruges Begijnhof Minnewater (Lake of Love) Basilica of the Holy Blood Koningin Astridpark playground 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 We're a family of four from Halifax, Nova Scotia, spending a year travelling through Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Hawaii, French Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. New videos every day of the trip, so subscribe to follow along. #Bruges #Brugge #Belgium #InBruges #Belfort #Begijnhof #Minnewater #Frites #DayTrip #FamilyTravel #Sabbatical #TravelVlog #TravelWithKids