Bruges is a bloody fairy tale land!

It really is lovely, although busier than we anticipated. We arrived just after 9pm on the 10th, dropped our bags at our accommodation and headed out to grab a bite. We found a fabulous little joint that serves up Syrian-Lebanese cuisine. We knew it was going to be fantastic when the guy from the kitchen came out to take our order with parsley stuck to his forehead. Parsley Head did not disappoint! We overate and then waddled home through the silent streets. It was so quiet it was almost unsettling. I felt like we were breaking curfew. 

It actually did remind me of sneaking out in the night with a friend of mine when we were fifteen. She came with my family to visit my grandmother in Eatonia, Saskatchewan. Some boys had asked us to come to a bush party, as you do in Saskatchewan. My parents said no (likely more my dad), and so we waited until everyone was asleep and then tiptoed barefoot out the back door. We thought we were super sneaky. In the morning my mother cornered us and told us that she had gotten up to use the restroom in the night and, “There were two little girls who were not in their bed.” Luckily my mother was slightly delinquent in her youth, so she didn’t dob on us. Or maybe she just didn’t want to see my dad flip out…

Airbnb

Anyway, Bruges. I had been looking forward to our stay here since finding an Airbnb listing that looked amazing. Some people, like Andre, may have looked through the photos of the place and said something like, “So this is where we’re going to be murdered,” but my immediate reaction was, “Holy shit, we have to stay here!” Andre agreed that if the reviews were good he would take the chance that our heads wouldn’t end up in someone’s freezer. The reviews were not just good, they were great. I win! You can see the pictures of our place posted in the Bruges photo section and I have some video of our room on YouTube.

We met our host the following morning. She was amazing. She had started her bed and breakfast in 1992 and was full of great information and tips. Her and her partner also make wine and beer. What more could you ask for?!

Breakfast. You could ask for breakfast… but it was included. Let’s talk about Speculoos. When I first saw the container I thought it was some sort of peanut butter. It is not. It is basically a crushed up gingerbread cookie spread. Breakfast of champions. Andre refused to try any. I believe he’s scared he would like it too much and start eating it by the spoonful in the middle of the night. I think this based on his past behavior of getting up in the night to pee and then diverting to the kitchen to eat wine gums before coming back to bed.

Beautiful but Busy

Overall, Bruges was nice but a bit too touristy for us. The food was great and so was the beer, but it was definitely pricey and you can only get water in a bottle at restaurants. Since this is pretty much the same price as a beer, you know which one we chose. I also dislike how wasteful it is to be going through all that plastic. One thing we loved about Paris was that there were water fountains everywhere we went, and they were all pieces of art. Very cool.

One thing we really liked about Bruges was that it is very walkable, and there were also bikes to rent as well as electric scooters (the stand up kind the kids use, not the ones made for the elderly, which I prefer because I’m uncoordinated and awkward – think Jack Tripper from Three’s Company).

10 days in…

Now to Antwerp.