If it's Saturday this must be Belgium!

Today we are in Belgium. It’s nestled between Germany, France, and Britain, and is famous for lace, waffles, chocolate, friets (French fries but they are Belgium) and even beer.

Through connections with the cruise critic rollcall for this voyage, we were a group of 8 who had pre-arranged a taxi to take us from the ship’s port in Zeebrugge to the quaint city of Bruge, about a 30-minute drive away. Well, we had a snafu and our taxi did not show. This was a chance we took as we had read that often people will hijack another group’s taxi by saying they are the party on the sign the taxi driver has. After waiting about 30 minutes, we figured we were either forgotten or hijacked. We were very lucky to have friends in our cruise critic group and one of them had arranged for a coach bus to transport a number of people. There was room on the bus for our group, so we joined them for the ride to/from Bruge. Whew!!

Initially a trading center in the 11th century through the 16th century, today Bruge prospers because of tourism. It’s a uniquely well-preserved Gothic city and the tourists have found it!

Store window filled with lace products

....and chocolates everywhere!

With a Rick Steves’ book in hand, we followed his suggested walking tour of the city through the squares and along the canals and over the pedestrian bridges. Our first stop was the bell tower that has stood over Market Square since 1300. We climbed about 360 steps up the circular tower for fantastic views of the city. Just before we reached the top, we could see the carillon room, where the 47 bells are played on the quarter hour. We saw the carillonneur using his fists and feet to play the bells.

Bell tower

Very steep, narrow, winding steps to the top of the tower

The Carillonneur

View from top of bell tower of Bruge

We wove our way through narrow streets and large squares, crossing the canals from time to time and enjoying the beauty of the area. The weather was ideal….we were really expecting rain as there is a 50/50 chance at this time of the year.

Canal in Bruge

This portion of canal was originally the moat around the city

Our Colorado neighbors joined us today and we all met at the De Halve Maan Brewery where Terry and Bob went on a tour of the brewery while Tissy and I visited in the restaurant. Unfortunately the brewery tour turned out to be more of a museum and not a working brewery. Hasn’t been for many, many years. But the guys enjoyed their free glass of beer after the tour and chatted with some locals about the Greek situation and the Dave Matthew Band (Terry had on a DMB t-shirt which sparked the discussion).

Deep in discussion with a couple of Bruge locals

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Bruge. What a fantastic and picturesque city—a definite must-see for anyone going to Belgium. There is so much more to see and museums to visit, but that will have to be another time.

Next…..France and we’ll go to Normandy D-Day beaches and memorials.