Bruges

 

The last time we were in Bruges, it was 2010, Callum was a couple of months from being born and we were on a bit of a babymoon added on to Tyler's trip to the Dutch altitude chamber.  This time around, Callum was 8, Claire was 6 and we were on our way to a work conference for Tyler in Bavaria. It was just as beautiful as we remembered and we made lots of wonderful memories with the kids along as well!

We drove straight from home to the Chunnel and then continued on another hour or so from Calais to Bruges.  We had a nice Airbnb on the outskirts of town that was just a bit too far from the city center to walk with the kids.

We had a great first night walking around the main square where a big music festival was happening to celebrate Belgian independence day.  

We meandered along the canals and stumbled upon a great little outdoor restaurant specializing in mussels.  The kids hopped on the bandwagon and haven't stopped eating mussels since!  

The next day we rented bikes including a funny looking tandem bike where Claire sat in front and, we recreated the bike ride we discovered the last visit.  It was a pretty sunny day and there was much going on in the city yet.  It took a bit of getting used to riding the bike because the front wheel was so far in front of where the adult sat in the bike.  Turns were very awkward on the cobbled streets!

We eventually made our way to the edge of town and followed the serene tree-lined canal for about 3-4 miles. with farmers fields on the left and the river on our right.  We stopped about halfway for our inaugural picnic lunch beside the canal...it was blissful.  Every day afterwards we would stop and have a picnic no matter where we were.  We had picnics in the Alps, in church yards, along rivers, in parks and on top of flowering hill sides along the road. 

Anyways, we rode on and reached the little village of Damme with its working windmill and city hall with quintessential stair-stepped roofline.  We had ice creams at a café and meandered around for a while before climbing up into the windmill and observing it in action. 

Back we rode into Bruges cruising along the path until we reached the perimeter canal and we followed it for a mile spying four different windmills all in different styles and colors.  

Next up was a boat tour of the town through all the various canals.  Claire really loved hamming it up for the camera.

Afterwards we had an early dinner with two very wiped out kiddos in a small square tucked right behind the famous canal viewpoint.

We took a lazy stroll with the requisite visit to a chocolate shop - everyone was in heaven!  Then it was time to turn in and get ready for another big day of driving through Germany.