Bruges Take 2!

After briefly seeing Bruges this past Monday, I wanted to get a longer stroll around the city. So I hopped on the train and an hour and a half later I was back in Bruges. Today was a rather cloudy day, but at least it wasn't raining.

Walking around in Bruges is like taking a step back in time. As I had previously mentioned, the medieval architecture in Bruges is still intact, so this makes an excellent sight-seeing trip.

This is Béguinage. Founded in the 13th century, it was a place where several sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic Church resided.

The above is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. It was built in the 12th century as the chapel of the residence of the Count of Flanders. Wikipedia tells me that it houses a "venerated relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders."


This building is called the Belfry. You can pay 5 euros to climb the 250+ steps to the very top. I think I'm going to save that for another day when it's nice and sunny outside so that I can get a better view of the city. As you can see, it was very cloudy over here today.

This is the city hall building.


As I mentioned before, there are literally thousands of bikes parked outside train stations.


While walking around the city, I saw a lot of people in line outside a store getting waffles. I couldn't just stand there and not get one, so I bought one! I guess it was fairly priced at 2.50 euros, considering how yummy it was. Freshly made waffles with hot chocolate topping, yum.


In addition to waffles, Belgium is known for its fries, mussels, chocolates and beer. Considering Belgium is the size of Maryland, it's amazing that it's famous for so many things!