Day 42: Bruges

I came to Bruges for a few days to escape the big-city grind for a few days and get a taste of a smaller, historic place. Bruges isn't a backwater village by any stretch, and there's lots to see and do, but there are a lot less tourists and everything is less crowded and just feels a bit more authentic than you get in big cities. Just as a quick example, I haven't seen any shopping malls in the city center, and only a single Subway for fast food chains. Not even McDonalds, and McDonalds is pretty much everywhere.

Also unlike the bigger cities, Bruges has a lot of narrow, twisting streets once you get a few blocks away from the main areas, and there aren't any nice perpendicular intersections like we're so used to in North America. These winding streets and the intersection canals can make it a bit easy to get lost, but the city center is small enough that it shouldn't become a real issue.

Or, for a different perspective:

That's from the top of the belfry, which I had the somewhat painful experience of being in for some very loud bell ringing. It's 336 steps to the top - which isn't too much, but the spiral stairs are very narrow and when you have people going up and down it can be a bit tricky. It certainly is a great view of the city though.

I had more interesting things to talk about for today, but it's getting later and I don't want to write anymore tonight. Tomorrow should be a slower day, so if I don't have too much new to talk about I can finish off todays events. Night.