Belgium-rose: Chocolate in Brugge - Brugge, Belgium Travel Blog

Flag of Belgium Brugge, West Flanders, Belgium
Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sunday 1^st April

Got up fairly early and had breaky and packed up and then left for the train station. The first tram I tried to get on however was pretty full and I was still on the steps of it when the doors attempted to shut on my bag so I decided maybe hop off and wait for the next one which the guys on the tram found funny as they laughed while it drove away. Anyway I made my way to the station and onto the train to Brugge. After about an hour I arrived and waited for the bus to take me to the other side of town to the hostel. I got the bus no worries however as I watched the little blue dot drive closer to my hostel, it turned down the street just before it got there and then started driving further away and then outside the walls of Brugge and out into who knows where so at the next stop I jumped up and asked the driver who said my best bet was to get off and walk back abit. I managed to also find my way to the hostel ok which was only really a ten min walk from where I got off the bus. So I checked in and then went to walk into town to check it out. The main centre is about a ten min walk from my hostel so it isn't far, and then the other side of town is only another 15mins after that. I walked past and to many beautiful old buildings such as the Belfry tower (really tall slightly crooked tower in the main square), the parliament buildings, and the many churches (used to be over 80 churches within the 8km (circrumfrenced) town, now theres about 25 still) while strolling through the gorgeous old cobbled, canal lined streets. I read somewhere that the locals sometimes feel like they live in Disneyland, and you can see why.

Delicious Belgian Frites

Typical Brugge Postcard shot

Lace and Chocolate shops - everywhere

Waffle with whipped cream!

Not only is everywhere beautiful but its also a very touristy town so has a lot of restaurants, chocolate shops and almost everylittle street has a museum of some sort. On my walk I went into one of the churches that has in it Michelangelo’s Madonna and child sculpture (one of Michelangelos only sculptures outside of Italy).

Michelangelo's Mary and Child

Inside a pretty church

Such a cute tow

Interesting Fountain statues

Giant chocolate egg

I then went to a chocolate museum which was really interesting and had everything from the history of the cocoa beans and the people that first discovered and used them, to the timeline from cocoa bean to chocolate drink to hard chocolate to where it is today, to the making of chocolate, different brands of chocolate, why Belgian chocolate is unique and much more. The best part was at the end where there was a demonstration of making of praline chocolates where we got to try some yay! There was even chocolate sculptures including a 520kg sculpture of barack obama… weird much?
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Chocolate museum

Chocolate moulds

Chocolate birds

CHocolate figurines

Chocolate Figurines

Chocolate Praline Demonstration

Lifesize chocolate Obama

Chocolate Statue Peeing Chocolate

By this time it was about 5pm but the sun was still high in the sky (so much has changed since middle of winter in Norway where the sun never rose!) so I decided to do one of the many boat tours through the little canals. The first one was just shutting but he said the next one down would be open, so I went to it and asked if he was open and then there was some weird communication but then he said he was closed and one of the boat guys was laughing. So anyway I just waited around for a while and then more people began to buy tickets and go on the boat so I went up and asked for a ticket and he reluctantly gave me one. I honestly still don’t understand why he said he was closed, but apparently it was some sort of rude joke on my behalf. Oh well. I got to go on the boat tour which was quite nice and pretty interesting with lots of picturesque views from the canals.

Pretty Brugge Canals

Pretty postcard shot

What a beautiful day!

So lovely

Markets on the water

Near the lake of love

After the boat tour I wandered back towards the hostel where I went to relax in the bar for a while. Here I met two nice Canadian girls who I chatted with and then we went to get dinner from this shop that sells loads of vegetarian and vegan food (one was vege one was vegan!) where I got a big pork kebeb… so much for vego! It was pretty good and we went back to the hostel where the girls decided to do the pub crawl and consequently convinced me to do it as well. I knew from the start it was a bad idea… we waited in the pub before hand for a while so had afew Belgium beers before it even began, and then it started and we had more beer, and unfortunately free shots at each of the 5 bars. I’ve decided lots of beer mixed with lots of shots after not much dinner and being slightly unwell is a very very bad combination which I will not do again. It was fun and I met some lovely people however I didn’t feel all that well by the end of it so myself and one of the Canadians went back to the hostel and crawled into bed.

My hostel bar

An awesome candle

Monday 2^nd April

Woke up with a pretty sore head today, but managed to get up in time for the breaky which was ok except for the whole no toaster thing. After breaky I slowly got ready to head out to the free walking tour. The walking tour went for two hours and was run by the same guy as the pub crawl. It was pretty interesting and explained abit about the history and the many old buildings and churches etc.

Prettyness

Me n my Brugge buddies

YUUUUUM

After the walking tour I wandered around the town for a while just taking in the scenery before getting a Panini for lunch along one of the main food streets. I then headed back to the hostel with the intention of hiring a bike however once I got there I was told there were none left. At this stage I couldn’t be bothered walking to the other bike hire which was on the other side of town so I just hung around the hostel for a while. I went to the local supermarket up the road and decided to eat Belgia n chocolate how the locals do it – from the packets at the supermarket – apparently its a lot cheaper but tastes the same and lasts longer. I got a big block of Cote d’Or praline filled milk chocolate and opened it straight away – it was delicious, like a block of guylian mmm… Since it was such a nice day I decided to go for a wander and went towards the outskirts of the town where there were some big Belgium windmills and nice green grassy areas. I did what quite afew others were doing and lay down in the sun on the grass below the windmills. It was so nice that I fell asleep here for about an hour or so.

View over Brugge

Awesome windmills

Brugge by night

So pretty

However I was woken up by the cold when the shade of a tree crept up on me so I got up and continued my wander through some of the streets before arriving back at the hostel. Here I stayed for a while doing blogging and such before I went to find some dinner in town. Unfortunately I had left it a bit late as it was around 8pm at this stage and apparently people in Brugge eat early as the restaurants all shut at 8pm! However there are still the many restaurants that cater for the many tourists that stay open, but this means higher prices and less tasty food – oh well, I had no choice so I went for lasagne, the cheapest option. After dinner I walked around afew of the pretty areas all lit up at night and then went back to the hostel to bed.