If you live here, it’s Brugge
‘If you’re visiting from North America, it’s Bruges.
But in reality, it doesn’t matter how you spell it, Burgge is a must-visit destination.
You may have guessed. I love Brugge.
The people we’ve met here, and the people in the streets, and the people in the shops are all friendly. Everyone has a smile for you.
The architecture is stunning. The canals are worth exploring. Some have swans, lots and lots of swans.
The lace inspires creativity. And covetedness, if there is such a word. I covet every piece of Brugge lace I see and find it hard not to buy more, more more.
And the food. Well, let me tell you. Belgians invented the french fry. Well, THEY say they did and according to them an American soldier saw a French soldier eating a fry and dubbed it French Fry and it stuck. And here, they pay homage to the humble potato with a dedicated museum. A french fry museum. How good is that?
And they go one better. They have a museum dedicated to chocolate. Yum. More on that later.
Moules? What can I say. On our first visit here, the Michelin starred restaurant we had dinner at one night had 28 different moules dishes on the menu. Madame the owner has sadly retired, the restaurant is under new management and the new menu is sadly deficient in the moules category, so we couldn’t repeat that memory. Monte Python comes to mind … “say no more, say no more!’
Sometimes a memory is best left undisturbed. We’ll leave it at that.
A canal cruise shows you parts of Brugge you wouldn’t see walking. Back to our first trip here, we took the canal cruise and passed one window where a lovely golden lab leaning on his front paws, surveyed all things passing before him. I can’t remember the order we saw things in, but we saw a Rick Steves program when he visited Brugge, and when he took the canal ride, there was the golden lab in the window. This trip, having taken the cruise and not seen said lab, we asked the cruise host about the dog. The lovely dog was a well-known landmark in Brugge, so Mr. Host knew exactly what we were asking about. Sadly our friend the golden lab died about six years ago and was not replaced.
Lace is a marvel here and it makes me wish for the patience to work multiple bobbins filled with hair-fine threads to create beautiful things. My patience stretches in many unimagined ways, but not to lace-making.
Along one stretch of the canal ride at the end of a street market filled with hand-made wonders, was a map of Brugge. It was taller than me and as wide as my outstretched arms, (and as my loving husband says, I have simian like arms, they are so long) so the map was big, and on close inspection, we discover the map was hand-made lace map. I gasped and gaped in awe.
I do love this place. In my dreams I think of moving here. Can’t do it. All other considerations aside, Diabetic me would be dead in a week. Every second shop is a chocolatier. Of the remaining half, about half are bakeries and another bunch are handmade nougat shops or just plain ordinary candy stores.
In another category (I have to do it this way, the percentages are already over 100 and that’s not possible), so in another category altogether are the various ice cream shops. Gelato of course. And if you ask really nice, they’ll add Chantilly to the two boules of gelato. That’s whipped cream in another language.
Blood sugar levels surge just thinking about it. Self control only lasts so long.
But in another life, I would live in Brugge.