Your Travel - Bruges

It is now two weeks since I posted the first guest post in my new travel guest series, Your Travel. I am very excited to present the second guest post from the lovely Meghan from Wishful Thinking. Be sure to check out her blog, it’s fantastic. Enjoy her story about wonderful Bruges and her amazing photos.

I am so excited to take part in Cammie’s travel series! My favourite part of travelling is reliving the memories and sharing them with others!  I had a really hard time picking just one destination to talk about, but I went with a destination that truly captured my heart and imagination… Bruges!

Bruges was relatively unknown to me so I didn’t really have any expectations, but from the moment I arrived, I completely fell in love with it. Just a short walk from the train station and you feel like you have been transported back in time - complete with mediaeval buildings built around small winding canals and bridges, quaint chocolate shops, imposing Gothic churches and cobbled streets with horse-drawn tourist carriages. And yes, it looks as good as it sounds!

The practicalities:

Bruges is small and very walk-able so you don’t have to worry about public transport to get around! Or if you are feeling more active, there are plenty of places to hire bikes or even do a Segway tour! The main attractions include the Market Square with the Belfry Tower (I was too nervous to go to the top after seeing the movie ‘In Bruges’), the Church of our Lady and De Halve Maan Brewery, where they brew the delicious local Bruges Zot! To get a different perspective of the city, take a short boat trip along the canal! My favourite day was spent strolling around Lovers Lake sipping hot chocolate and contemplating life.

The fun stuff:

Bruges is the place to break out the elasticated pants. No seriously, you will need them! The Belgians are world-famous for waffles, beer, mussels, French fries (yip, they even have a museum dedicated to them) and of course chocolate. In the interest of being a good tourist, I tackled each and every one of these delights with gusto! If you haven’t tried a Belgian waffle in Belgium then you haven’t lived!

Some tips:

Take a stroll outside the major attractions, the crowds are thinner and the neighbourhoods are very pretty. Although the chocolate shops in the centre of town are fantastic, they are quite posh and expensive so shop around, we found a fantastic chocolate shop near the French Fry Museum (sorry, I can’t remember the name), the choccies were delicious and cheaper. And finally, visit around Christmas time to enjoy the famous Christmas markets but also make sure you leave enough time to do a day trip out to the WWI battle sites – I was so disappointed that we ran out of time!

Thanks for having me Cammie! I am soooo looking forward to hearing other travel stories in this series!

The pictures are Meghan’s personal photos.

If you’re interested in contributing to this, then please do not hesitate to contact me on cammiewaaden@yahoo.com. I am very interested in posting about your travels and to learn something new.