Today was Bruges day.
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in Belgium's Flemish Region with a population of around 117 thousand, of whom around 20,000 live in the city centre. With most of its medieval architecture intact, the historic city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A canal-based city, like Amsterdam it is sometimes referred to as "The Venice of the North". Bruges has a significant economic importance thanks to its port; at one time, it was the "chief commercial city" of the world.
First mentioned in records as Bruggas in 840–875, the name Bruges probably derives from the Old Dutch for "bridge".
With my host, Secil, having fortunately provided me with enough food to get me started, I was able to have a reasonably early breakfast and be out of the apartment by around 7:30am. It turns out that this was an excellent tactic, as it meant that as a tourist, I had the city virtually to myself - of course, along with the regular Brugians starting their daily business.
Bruges is a fairly compact medieval city, with the old-town neatly encased by an oval-shaped moat of around 8km in length that follows the city's medieval fortifications, with four of the original nine 14th-century gates still standing.
And so, I was able to walk from the apartment which sits just outside the western rim of the old city, to the southern end of the city in about 30 minutes, and from there work my way through the city centre, and across to the eastern side, where there is a series of windmills on an embankment. From there, I headed back into the city centre, as things had started to open.
The belfry houses a 47-bell carillon, and also a drum-driven bell chiming tune each quarter hour.
Numbers are limited to 70 at any one time, so during peak periods, there can be a line-up; no such trouble today, as the peak tourist season is yet to hit - thankfully.
I realise that each driver has their own patter, and no doubt they say exactly the same thing at th same point on every trip, but ours at least did throw in a few funny lines along the way, which helped to make it a bit more interesting. There was also enough information to make the trip reasonably informative; at 7.60 euros, not too bad in the value-for-money stakes.
With the crowds ever-increasing, I decided to head in for the day; however, along the way I was able to get a few more shots of some interesting canals, etc.
The dominant belfry rises majestically over the city; when you look at it closely it seems to have a lean to it - which I discovered it does, of about 1 metre.
Along the backstreets there are various interesting little side canals and bridges - just after taking one shot of something that interested me (but nothing particular), a small group of Asian tourists ran hurried across the road to where I'd been, and I last saw them looking down the canal clearly wandering what I had been photographing.
In my defence, I did like Bruges; in Bruges' defence, here is a panorama of a variety of building styles along a canal that I managed to get - it really is a picture-postcard-perfect city:
So, it's 100 days down, and 34 to go.
Tomorrow I head to Paris to meet up with Kim - yay! We agreed that I would arrange to get to Paris on the same day that Kim arrives, so I will be there at around 2pm, to sort out the accommodation, and then head to the airport to meet Kim around 8pm.