Bruges, Belgium, is a fairy tale city that seems lost in time. Walking the streets and canals, it's not hard to imagine what life what like in the 1400's in Bruges' heyday. The market square, or Markt, features cafes in picturesque gabled buildings, horse drawn carriages, and a huge tower belfry that chimes out the time every quarter hour. In the fifteenth century, Bruges was as large as London, a shipping city of wealthy merchants and traders known for their luxury goods like wool and tapestries. The modern concept of a stock exchange was first founded in Bruges. Unfortunately for the city, the port silted up around 1500 and trade moved elsewhere. Bruges was revived for tourism in about 1900 and is now a beautifully preserved city.

Cory says there are four kinds of establishments here: bars and cafes featuring Belgium beer, stores selling chocolate, lace and tapestry shops, and clothing shops . That about sums up the neighborhood! We aren't complaining as we've enjoyed all the little cafes and tea rooms, bars, and chocolate shops on a daily basis. Our favorite little bar so far is one called Rose Red. It's quiet and elegant with dozens of long stemmed red roses hanging from all the exposed roof beams. Cory tries the dark beers, and I favor the fruity beers, like the Frambois Chapeau, a raspberry beer that is served in a little wicker basket with stemmed glass to drink it. The chocolate shops offer samples when you enter, so we usually take a sample or two, browse a bit and buy one or two beautifully crafted pieces of chocolate in some exotic flavor. We found one street that has eight chocolate shops in a very short block, with a couple waffle houses thrown in between! We even stopped in a beautiful little store selling Christmas items today with a whole room filled with quite elaborate hand carved Black Forest cuckoo clocks. In fact, everything in Bruges seems very elegant to us with chandeliers in the tea shops and beautiful Louis XVI chairs at the tables . We even have three chandeliers in our little apartment and a marble fireplace for those chilly evenings.


The weather has been cool and brisk, so we've been out walking every afternoon seeing the sights. Bruge is very walkable, even with the cobble stoned streets, and easy to get around. We've visited some of the beautiful churches including the Basilica of the Holy Blood, where a holy vial containing Jesus Christ's blood is on display. This church is tucked away in a corner in large square next to the very ornate Town Hall and doesn't even look like a church from the outside. We had to ask directions to be sure we had the right door. Once you enter, though, you are struck by the beauty and peace in this holy place. It was quite impressive. Next, the Church of Our Lady is a land mark in Bruges and has a 400 ft high pointed steeple that serves as a point around which the city orients itself. Inside is a Michelangelo statue of the Virgin and Child, rare outside of Italy .

Yesterday we walked to the Bruges Beguinage in one of the most beautiful areas of the city. A Beguinage is a French word for a home where religious women live, work and serve God without taking vows as nuns. In the middle ages, many European towns had beguinages which were walled and safe communities where unmarried women could live and work, leaving freely during the day and retire to walls safely locked at night. The Bruges Beguinage is a walled community of white-washed gabled houses with a church and infirmary located next to a canal and park area. We walked the cobbled streets and realized this community looked the same today as it did 700 hundred years ago. There are signs reminding visitors to be quiet and respect the peace of the place. The Beguinage is now the home of Benedictine nuns.

One sight we should have skipped was the Historium in the Markt square. It's a multimedia presentation of the history of Bruge seen through the eyes of young apprentice in the 1400's. Rather corny and probably appeals more to children. We're looking forward to seeing some other museums in the coming days.