Second stop on the tour d’Europe was Bruges (aka Brugge). I read somewhere that Bruges was like ‘fucking Disneyland’, referring to the fact that the city’s medieval charm is due to very intentional rehabilitation and renovation. In a couple ways, I think that forgotten critic’s claim is more or less accurate. It feels a bit like a Disneyland exhibit when you’re walking around, with cobblestones under foot and big pointy towers in the distance. The strangest thing about the town, though, is the fact that there are speakers throughout the place piping in American pop music all day. You can walk for blocks and listen to the same song the whole time. It’s like being in an outdoor mall, but you’re not, you’re in this beautiful city with 13th century architecture. It’s very strange, and kind of bolsters the Disneyland comparison.

It is a beautiful city, though, no matter how Disneyland-y it might be. The pictures here only show part of it (and apologies in advance for such a picture-heavy post). It’s a cool feeling to walk through the narrow streets and suddenly come across the massive square with all the old buildings surrounding you. I can see why it’s a huge tourist destination.

On the second day, we rented some bikes and rode out into the countryside. We kind of overdid it a bit, but we had a really great time seeing the country as well as the coast. I was pretty excited about seeing the ocean, since it was my first time seeing the Atlantic from this side!

For those of you not content with still images of what is a decidedly motion-based experience, here are some videos I uploaded. It gives a much better idea of what it was like out there: first – second – third – fourth

The trip to the beach and back (with a few stops for snacks, coffee, and wafels) took us all day (12-7) and we covered about 36 miles. The embedded map below shows the route we took.

View Brugge – Knokke Heist in a larger map

We were exhausted by the time we got back and had one of our first good nights of sleep. The effects of jet lag seem to be wearing off a little. Hopefully this means higher quality posts from yours truly =)