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To commemorate the Smithsonian Presents Travels with Rick Steves magazine — now on sale online, and at newsstands nationwide — Rick is blogging about the 20 top destinations featured in that issue. One of those destinations is Bruges, Belgium.
Chocolate, beer, canalside bike rides, French fries, carillon concerts…Bruges is an amazing little tourist town. While you might get discouraged as you shuffle through its sights along with hordes of tourists, it’s worth it. The town entertains with a unique knack for excellence and an infectious passion for good living.
Locals swear by their personal favorite chocolatier. They know that when the weather’s too hot, the chocolate-makers close down. The people of Bruges buy their chocolate with a concern for freshness like a muffin-eater does in the USA. Yesterday’s chocolate just won’t do.
Pubs are not just pubs. They are destinations…as the annual visits of many American beer aficionados attest. Pubs in the ye olde center — places you’d think would be overrun by tourists — are the proud domain of locals, who find the fact that monasteries have historically brewed the finest Belgian beers perfectly in line with their personal theology.
French fries (called Vlaamse frites, or “Flemish fries,” for the region of Flanders, in which Bruges lies) are another guilty local pleasure. One time a Bruges chef took me into the kitchen to witness the double-deep-frying process required to make a fry up to Flemish standards. His nervous, giggly reveal reminded me of the kid who showed me my first dirty magazine at the Y back when I was a grade-schooler. He’d pick up a single fat fry, ready for its second hot-oil bath. Holding it at the bottom, he made it wobble, as if playfully sharing a centerfold.
Bruges offers the best carillon concert I’ve found in Europe (normally June-Sept Mon, Wed, and Sat at 21:00; Oct-May Wed and Sun at 14:15). The city puts out benches in the courtyard below the City Hall bell tower. You can hear the tunes ringing out from the tower’s bells anywhere in the town center. But to sit in that courtyard, looking up at the rustic brick tower and hearing the performance, is a ritual for locals…and it just seems right.
Seated there one evening, I gaze up at the lofty tower. Like a kid checks in with his mom and dad before going down a long slide at the playground, the carillonneur pops his head out a window and waves. Then he disappears and begins hammering — literally hammering, as a carillon keyboard looks like the keyboard foot pedals of a big organ, yet are played by the little-finger sides of clenched fists.
After the concert, we clap, and he appears again — tiny head popping out the little window to happily catch our applause. The crowd dissipates. I wait at the base of the tower to personally thank the carillonneur. A few minutes later, he’s at street level, in his overcoat, looking like any passerby. I shake his hand and find myself gripping a freakishly wide little finger. A lifetime of pounding the carillon has left him with a callus that more then doubled the width of his pinky. Just one more artist in the city of Bruges.
If you like carillon concerts Rick, then come to Frankfurt and listen to the one on Wednesdays at 12:10 from the Alte Nikolai church on the Römer. This is played by a lovely and skilled woman named Yuko, on 47 bells. This is the only carillon in Frankfurt, and Yuko plays beautifully.
What impressed me most about Bruges was the mobile soup kitchens which traverse the town to provide sustenance for shut-ins. Sort of like our own Meals on Wheels.
Based on what transpired in the movie IN BRUGES, I would not sit too close to the Bell Tower.
Bruges is just wonderful. Sitting drinking and amazing beer, having some moules frites; after a “stressful” day of a canal cruise and looking at amazing art – Perfect. One of my favorite places that I may never have gone to without your book. Thanks!
Bruges is one of my favorite little cities! Divine chocolate, scrumptious waffles, lovely hand-made lace, beautiful architecture, serene canals…what more can one ask for?
My husband and I leave Aug 23 for 3days in Bruges b4embarking on a river cruise. thanks to Rick's commentaries Istarted packing 2 days ago!
Bruges is indeed a very pleasant place to visit. The chocolate alone is worth the plane fare. I was, however, very disappointed in the Pommes Frites and found them to be quite ordinary even though I tried them at several different places.
Bruges is one of my favorite cities. I enjoy the fairytale charm and try to escape there whenever I'm in Europe. I was just there this past week with my father, and we both noticed that unlike past visits, the city seemed more crowded than ever before. The pedestrian traffic sprawled even to the backdoor streets, and we were always moving out of the way to allow streams of cars to pass. I began to wonder if the movie In Bruges contributed at all to the increase in tourism. I spoke with a friend who was born and raised in Bruges, and he said there is an upcoming mayoral election and perhaps there will be some new traffic regulations. I like to see a bustling economy, but as my dad said, "It's a heartache. The magic is a bit ruined." I still think the city is absolutely charming and hope that on my next visit it will be a little easier to stroll around, which is my favorite thing to do in Bruges.