Day trip to medieval bruges: 

We actually started our trip to Brussels by going to a different city. Bruges is a city about an hour away from Brussels on the train, and tickets are about 17 euros each way. I heard a lot of good things about the city and it's historical city center - which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site with most of its medieval architecture still intact. The city used to be one of the poorest cities in Europe and couldn't afford to build in the Renaissance style, so they decided to build in the medieval gothic and are now known as one of the most well-preserved medieval towns in Europe. Even the horses still have the right of way over bikers and pedestrians.

 

**If you aren't able to go to the city but want to know what it looks like, you can watch the movie In Bruges with Collin Farrell.

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There are a ton of cool sites to see in Bruges. I think a day and a half would've been the perfect amount of time in the city, but I was only there for a day and still had a lot of fun. I always want to see a lot of things in a short amount of time, so I heard about the Legends of Bruges Free Walking Tours from a friend. There is a historical tour (which I did), a food tour, and a night tour that are all free to join! The historical tour talked about the city and its history and took us to all of the major sites around Bruges. There wasn't time to go inside the sites since it was a group tour, but it was nice to note all of the places I wanted to go back to see after the tour.

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Some of the sites mentioned on the tour/Sites that I wanted to visit:

• Markt Square

• Salvador Dali Museum

• Church of our Lady - has Michelangelo's Madonna and Child (the only Michelangelo outside of Italy while he was alive and has been stolen twice before)

  • Watch The Monuments Men movie with George Clooney and Matt Damon where they search for the masterpieces stolen by the Nazis during WWII

• Visit the windmills near the town walls 

• Xpo Center Bruges - with works by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol + the temporary Mummies in Bruges exhibit 

• De Halve maan brewery - medieval brewery that built the first beer pipe; try the famous Bruges beer, brouwerijbezoek

• See the sheep at Hof de Jonghe park

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Food Recs:

• That's Toast! - probably my favorite place I've eaten while abroad  

• Waffles and fries from anywhere in Belgium