Brugge

An hour train ride away is the small city of Brugge.   With only a day it was hard to fully appreciate it but we did our best with a walking tour and of course a canal cruise.  Houses have a bit more color here and are slightly different than Amsterdam.  The city was crowded with many, many restaurants and souvenir shops. The historic centre is another UNESCO site.

One of the interesting stops was the Begijnhof. A begijnhof is a walled city dating back to medieval times.  Laywoman who dressed in a specific way lived there and did charity work from behind the walls.  Unlike nuns they were free to leave at any time and marry.  The complexes are peaceful even today.  Today they are used for housing for older women.  We had also seen one in Amsterdam.

A begijnhof woman statue in one building.  Some details like lipstick and jewelry are wrong.

Many of the shops were decorated outside making the walk down the streets very interesting.  

There are 70 protected swans in the waterways and numerous honking Canada Geese - just no escaping them

The local brewery - Halve Moon

And the brewery’s most famous beer

This symbol indicates the chocolates in the dtore are made in Brugge

There was big excitement in town - a brand new building that will hold temporary art displays was opening that night and the entire weekend was a celebration.

There are a large number of churches one could visit but we limited our church visit to The Church of Our Lady to view the collection of beautiful art - the most famous being the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo.