In Bruges

I'm always been sceptical about travelling in your own country. Especially if your home country is rainy Belgium. But I've always been fascinated by the foreign attention Bruges got. So when my girlfriend had her birthday, it was the perfect moment to book a weekend to Bruges.

We stayed in Hotel De Barge. A boat hotel right outside of the old city center. The location was perfect because staying in the city center requires you to leave your car somewhere far away. Staying at De Barge allowed us to leave our car a couple of metres from our stay.

Hotel De Barge isn't cheap, but let me convince you to stay there. The staff is authentic and superfriendly. They even put a small teddybear and some chocolate truffles by our bed for my girlfriend's birthday. That's how you score points!

Busdrivers come here to enjoy their dinner. They don't have a huge menu but they stick to the classics and own them! Having dinner here is something I would strongly advise you to do.

The room is really cute. It's a small suite and the staff puts life vests on your bed. This only adds to the boat experience. The room has warm colors and it just makes you feel at home. Expect ducks in the morning just outside of your window as well.

The breakfast is worth your time. They have everything from croissants to yoghurt to muesli to eggs, you name it. It's a buffet style that will please everyone. Young and old, foreigner or Belgian.

The City

So what do you do when you're in Bruges?

Just enter the Old Town and walk around and you'll be entertained for quite some hours. Medieval buildings that are in great shape to feast your eyes on.

You can't walk ten metres in Bruges without seeing a chocolate and/or candy shop. Everywhere you walk you smell the scent of chocolate. Which is fine for the first couple of hours and then you cave in and go on a chocolate hunt streak.

Chocolate Walk

Not quite the adventurer? No problem. Make your way down the Chocolate Museum and ask for the Chocolate Walk. This way you can discover the town while making pitstops in different shops and bars and treat yourself to some fine Belgium chocolate.

Brewery 'Brugse Zot'

Wether you like it or not, you should take a tour in the brewery of 'Brugse Zot'. The guides are funny and give you an insight peek how the Belgian Beer gets created from scratch. They will explain to you how they transport the beer from the small old town to the big commercial towns and that might surprise you how they do it.

The guides makes sure your experience there will be fun and at the end of the trip you can taste the beer together with your group. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of it as well.

Restaurants

Our recommendation? Bistro 't Zwart Huis

A jazzy club restaurant where the atmosphere is really cool but make sure you book your stay. We were there in grey October and literally everything was booked for dinner. We were lucky we could have lunch the day after here because at night the place is packed!

If you have more questions about Bruges, make sure to leave them in the comments!

Did you like reading this blogpost? Make sure to like me on Facebook to get a heads up when I drop a new one