Enjoying a festive weekend in Brugge

August 24 - 26, 1996

Our Travel Experience

We just wanted to get out of London for the weekend. Everyone had told us how nice Brugge was, so we decided to see for ourselves.

Our Travel Experience
We really enjoyed Brugge! We had heard that it was a "must see" city, so we planned a weekend. We ended up going on a very special weekend (accidentally). The town was having a historical parade describing the Flemish region. This was a parade which they had every 5 years! It was the most unique and memorable parade we've ever been to. All the shops along the parade route rented chairs and set them up outside their shops along the street. The shops then charged a small fee to sit down and enjoy the parade as it went by. The parade itself was amazing in that there were so many horses used to pull the floats. There parade also contained a whole flock of sheep, many dogs, cats and even a few camels! It was really spectacular.

We also really liked how friendly the people were. The shop we rented our chairs from was a family business. The father, mother and three sons. It was fun watching them organize everything for the parade. They were very, very friendly and helped us to understand the process of paying for a chair and coming back for it. We also met friendly people in the restaurants and hotels.

The hotel we stayed in was also great since it had an indoor swimming pool. Our room was special also since it was the honeymoon suite! Tara especially liked the terrace out the back of the hotel. She would read in the sun while Seth was still getting ready in the mornings. But, the best part of the hotel was the cat. A pregnant Momma kitty came to visit us one night in the hallway. She was also very happy to see us outside when we rented bikes. And we were happy to see her too!

We would recommend renting bicycles and touring the city. We rode all the way around the downtown area and out along the river around the town. We thought we were following the circular Brugge path, but we actually realized we were following the circular Belgium route. We figured that out when we saw the sign that says, you are now leaving Brugge. We quickly turned around!!

We also recommend the food. Belgium doesn't have mad cows - so we enjoyed BEEF! The peppered steak was a special treat. We ate outside at several cafes. Once in the main square surrounded by gorgeous buildings and in the sun. Again at a cafe in a square under an umbrella since it was raining. And again at a cafe at a smaller main square. Each time, Seth ate the peppered beef.

The only thing we wish we could have done was to bring home some very, very, very cute hamsters that we saw.

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We bought our Eurostar tickets on the 10th of August and paid GBP 442.