Bruges, beer festivals and a great weekend!

[Tricky]

So me & the girlfriend decided to hop over to Belgium for her birthday at the weekend, and if you've never been, I would say its definitely worth a visit! Its a beautifully preserved medieval city, full of gothic architecture & towering landmarks, as well as being almost like venice with its canals & waterways! We stayed bang in the centre of the city, about 30 seconds walk from the big belfort tower where the guy falls from in the film "in Bruges", and I climbed the 366 steps to the top for the awesome view from up there! The best part though, was that there was a proper beer festival being held in the building that surrounds the Belfry tower (the former city treasury) :evil: All of the beers there were awesome, I dont think I will be able to go back to drinking crap like Stella, Bud, Grolsch, Fosters etc, those proper Belgian beers were frigging tasty! I took hundreds of photos there, but I'll just post a few :)

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The town hall

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Belfry tower

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Looking out over Bruges & into Flanders from the top of the Belfry

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The beer fest! All the stands were on the inside of the buildings

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The medieval merchants quarter in the background, taken from the canal boat ride we went on.

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"Madonna and child" by Michaelangelo, this is inside Bruges cathedral. It is the only Michaelangelo piece in Europe outside of Italy, and it was stolen by Nazi troops as they retreated from Bruges towards the end of the war, but later recovered & returned.

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Inside the cathedral, I'm not religious by any means, but I fully appreciate the architecture & history of such places.

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And me with a sign that looked like it said "bell end", which I found highly amusing :lol:
I'll put a few more up if anyones interested, but you get the idea! Great place to go!

[AcesandEights]

Historic Bruges. I tried to fit in to my trip to mainland Europe a few years back, but it wasn't meant to be.

Looks like you had a good time, man. Very cool pics! Throw up a few more, or maybe I'll just check out the pics on FB.

[Legion2213]

"lol. Bell-end" - That is so British isn't it? :D

Sounds like a pretty kick ass weekend though. :thumbsup:

[MikePizzoff]

Awesome looking city - not something us Americans will ever [easily] get to see.

[blind2d]

I'm quite happy for you. Jealous, but very happy.

[Tricky]

Awesome looking city - not something us Americans will ever [easily] get to see.

There was a lot of Americans there actually! Unfortunately some of those I came across were quite rude, some american women refused to tip the canal boat driver after the trip he took us on, and were quite vocal about it which just made me cringe! And the inside of the belfry tower has been scrawled on fairly recently, and the vast majority of the graffiti was american because they had all written where they were from under it, defacing the history of the place :( but thats just a few individuals I guess, and some brits are just as bad when they go to spain etc.

Heres a couple more anyway!

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View of the Belfry tower from the canal trip

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The former English consulate, a very english looking building in the middle of all those stepped roofed Belgian buildings!

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Looking down on the market place from the Belfry

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The cathedral from the outside

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The town hall by night, awesome looking building!

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And sailing out of Zeebrugge port to go home, in world war 1 it housed German submarine launching pens which I think are still there, and in the second world war during German occupation it was heavily fortified, but then completely destroyed by retreating german troops in the months after D-Day to deny it to the allies, as the canadians advanced into Belgium.

[MikePizzoff]

That shot of the cathedral being renovated is really awesome.

[bassman]

Incredible! Great pictures, man.

[MinionZombie]

"lol. Bell-end" - That is so British isn't it? :D

Sounds like a pretty kick ass weekend though. :thumbsup:

*high five* for that, I had a proper chuckle at that photo. :D

Cool pics dude. I want to go to Bruges sometime ... kinda because of the movie really (which is a really good flick, come to think of it) ... but it looks like my kind of trip to make. To actually get to see some stuff and not just be there to get pissed and sunbathe (can't stand holidays like that, the very idea of them too ... not my cup of tea at all) ... Bruges looks absolutely beautiful.

I'll have to make it there one day.

[Tricky]

Cheers guys! And yep, definitely worth a visit if you get chance! And the film "in Bruges" is worth a watch!

[AcesandEights]

There was a lot of Americans there actually! Unfortunately some of those I came across were quite rude, some american women refused to tip the canal boat driver after the trip he took us on, and were quite vocal about it which just made me cringe! And the inside of the belfry tower has been scrawled on fairly recently, and the vast majority of the graffiti was american because they had all written where they were from under it, defacing the history of the place :(

I always hate when travelers aren't on their best behavior and always feel bad if I find out they're Americans.