Bruges is a city of Belgium that is located in the Northwest part of the country close to the English channel and the borders of France and the Netherlands. It's about an hours drive from the cities, Dunkirk France and Ghent Belgium and about an hour and a half drive from Belgiums capital, Brussels. Needless to say its in a prime location for travel in the country.
With it being so close to multiple major cities, two neighboring countries and the sea, it's not all that surprising to learn that the city was once one of the most prominant trade centers in Europe.
In the center of the city is a large historic square with a bell tower that dates back to the 13th century. The plaza is surrounded by a series of Neo-Gothic buildings that have been preserved and well kept throughout the cities history. In the year 2000 the entire city center became a World Heritage site and has been deemed a World Heritage City by the UNESCO foundation.
When we were there early last year covid was in full swing and it was the only place we had been where masks were mandatory to wear outdoors. Even the statues were wearing them! Masks outdoors is somewhat common now but at the time it was strange seeing every single person kn the streets wearing a mask.
The old town is connected by a series of cobble stone streets and a network of canals called the Reien. It's a great place to explore the many quaint restaurants and shops selling gifts and of course, chocolate. The country as a whole is known for it chocolate.
We found that many of the chocolate shops felt very touristy and seemed to be a bit over priced though, for what was being sold in them - 20 euros for a box of 12 pre-packaged, mass produced chocolates that look like they've been sitting on the shelf for days!? No thanks. This was especially the case in and around the main square.
Regrettably, I didn't take any photos of the shops. I really need to get better at that.
We did find one small chocolate shop that we really enjoyed though. It was called Chocolatier Dumon. It was a very small store that had a decent assortment of bonbons. None of them were labeled when we went so we had to choose between buying a small pre-packaged assortment or selecting the chocolates ourselves by asking the owner to explain each of the different flavors. We did the latter and found that they were all very good. I believe that Dumon is actually a chain of stores and that there are several locations throughout Europe.
Belgium is also known for its beer and Bruges has a really cool pub called 2be Beer Wall. Its has something like 500 unique brands of beer being sold on tap or by the bottle. I had a really delicious amber ale that was sold in a glass in the shape of curved bulls horn. It was actually quite hard to drink from but the novelty of it was pretty fun. The pub is also connected to a massive gift shop that feels more like a museum then an actual store. It's worth walking through it even if you don't plan on buying anything.
One last store that we went into that we love is Kathe Wohlfahrt. It's a well known German christmas store that has locations all across Europe. We love looking at their Smokers - little wooden incense burners.
