Bruges

Okay, go watch the movie 'In Bruges' before you read this, go ahead, I'll wait...

Well, if you haven't seen it, the catchphrase line from the movie that the psychotic mob boss delivers again and again is that 'Bruges is a F***ing fairy tale'. That thought was with us as we were here. Joking aside, it really is like a fairy tale. The perfectly preserved medieval buildings and the Cinderella spires combined with the canals make for a storybook experience. It is sometimes refered to as the 'Venice of the North' due to the canals, but just as likely for the tourist hordes. This being the off-season it wasn't so packed with tourists and we had some elbow room as we explored.

It really is beautiful and everywhere you turn is a picture, it is no Venice since it is not an island and there is traffic, but it is quite a sight. We only spent a day here just to see what it was like. Keeping with the Venice comparison their is even a Michelangelo sculpture in a church, one of the few Michelangelo pieces outside of Italy (I think the Louvre has another). Their are a lot of tourist traps here, but one thing worth seeing is Jesus' blood. Yes that is right, they claim to have Jesus' blood in one of the chapels. Well after witnessing these things we climbed a tower to get a view over the whole city which was nice. We spent the rest of the day walking around soaking up the fairy tale. The map we got from the hostel was hilarious. It had a section on 'how to piss off the locals', which included such gems as 'What time does Bruges close?' and 'Hey is this the tower they built for the movie "In Bruges"' and everybodys favorite, 'Where is McDonalds?'.

We partook in more of the famous Belgian beers and the bartender at the bar we ended up at was a Pantheon of knowledge on local beers and helped us select some good ones. Some more Fries before we went to sleep in our hostel (which was possibly built in the medievil era) and we were done.

Good little place, beautiful and worth the visit, but touristy and overpriced even in winter, but fries and beer overshadow any minor discomforts.