Today was mostly work, but we did find time to pop out for some breakfast – I had a waffle and realised I have never had one before. Not in a restaurant, not on a cruise ship, not at home… it was ridiculously sweet.
There are loads of waffle houses here, so you can pick and choose by Google ratings which one you want to visit.
Sweet and savoury offerings at this place.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel and worked until about 4pm when we went out to find a drink by the canal and watch the world go by. We ended up at Jan Van Eyck Square in a tapas bar? Ok.
There’s some cool civic art in these old cities and then some weird civic art in these old cities.
The Bruges Belfry that was built in the 13thC is 83m tall and is one of the three iconic towers of Bruges, (this and the Church of Our Lady and the St Salvator’s Catheral). There are 366 steps to climb to the top to see the famous views of the city. At the top, there is an enormous impressive music roller that controls the carillon, and a lower room where there is a keyboard which the carillon bells are played with now – since we got here, I’ve been wondering who I write to, to ask them to stop playing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ on the damn bells! Seems such a weird fucking choice, but it here it is, every hour on the hour.
Mr K went for the walk up the top to check out the view for me… no way my knee is having any part of this.
On the way up, is the city’s schatzkammer – or the imperial treasury. Here is where the city hallmarks, the city seal and the city treasury were kept in the Middle Ages… in a teeny tiny coffer, they’d have us believe.
The views look amazing.
The carillon mechanisms.
Back on the ground, we went to find a place for dinner and ended up at a Flemish restaurant (after vaguely toying with the idea of going for sushi, lol) called Vlaminck.
The food was delicious. Beef carpaccio, cheese croquettes, the obligatory frites and the Flemish stew was the best one we have tried.
