Paris-Bruges Belguim

We took the subway to the train station and took the train for 2 hours to Brussels and then 30 minutes to Bruges. It was sunny and we enjoyed the train ride and watching the changing scenery from the city buildings in Paris to farms and country with pastures, crops, and lots of dairy cattle interspersed with little villages.

We took a 10-minute taxi ride to Hotel Heritage. The hotel did not look that impressive outside but when we went inside we found a beautiful hotel, it reminded me of Pan Pacific hotel in Vancouver on a smaller scale.












We settled into the hotel then went for a walk and found a beautiful clean town full of historic buildings. Bruges was a trading center in the 14th century with a population on 35,000 people (in a league with London) and the most important cloth market in northern Europe. By the 16th century, silt clogged the harbor and killed the economy. Because the economy went bad people in the town did not tear down buildings and put up new ones so now it is uniquely well preserved with tourism an important industry.













There is a beautiful church in the market square with a bell tower that dates back to 1300 which plays different tunes with it’s 47 bells on the quarter of the hour. We could hear the bells from our hotel. We looked at a church of Our Lady, which had a statue of Madonna and child by Michelangelo. I wish I had planned more time in Bruges. We went back to the hotel and just enjoyed being in such a nice hotel.

Michelangelo statue

We took a boat ride on the canals and enjoyed the ride and listening to the history of Bruges. We had Belgium waffles (of course you have to have belgium waffles in Belgium), which they do not eat for breakfast but lunch and supper.

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