Europe trip: Bruges
Holiday Eurotrip
This autumn I decided to take some holiday and travel through Europe by car. My plan is to visit Bruges, Luxembourg, Zurich and Milan. I do not have a set route or hotels booked for the whole trip, I decided to book hotel on a day. It is a quite fun experience, to be honest: you do not know where exactly you are going to sleep, except for the country :)
I already did travel to Europe couple of times by car, but we always used the Eurotunnel. This time, however, I decided to take a ferry. It was an interesting experience, considering the fact that there was a storm hitting UK. The sea was a little bit rough, but we got to Dunkirk safely. My first city to visit was Bruges.
Bruges
Mildly interesting: when visiting Europe, if you have a car, you can rent a hotel room 20-30 mins outside the city you want to visit to save yourself a big buck. In my case, when visiting Bruges (Belgium, here you go, saved you google search), I actually spent the night in France!
I have to admit: realizing that you crossed the border between two countries by noticing a road sign with a country name is a really interesting experience, especially when you are comparing it to crossing the border with Russia or USA.
I know, I know: this blog has the subtitle “software development”, but it is not only about software development, I want to share other thoughts as well. Hope you do not mind.
First things first: Bruges, has the most questionable city logo:
It is quite an old European city, which reminded me of Amsterdam because of its look alike buildings and canals. Bicycles are actively used as a main form of transport. For example, the main square has a separate parking for bicycles:
And, like in Amsterdam, you can find many interesting things just by looking at bikes:
This one probably belongs to a Lady. You know how often Ladies pay attention to things like matching purse and shoes? Why stop there? What about getting matching bicycle bag and bell:
For some reason, a lot of shops around tourist areas are selling knitted white tablecloths and other similar things:
Obviously, Belgium is known for its chocolate. But usual chocolate is boring, so how about DIY hot chocolate instead? You just put this thing in a cuppa hot milk, let it melt and enjoy your hot drink. The wooden handle is actually a spoon to help you stir once the chocolate melts. Genius.
Obviously, when you have canals, you gotta have a boat tour:
And if you have a boat tour, obviously, you need to have a moustache to be a proper captain!
Like any city, Bruges has it’s own monuments. To be honest, I took this picture just because I wanted to practice taking portraits.
Remember, I told you that Bruges reminds me of Amsterdam? Here you go: tulips:
Pub quiz time! I stumbled upon a place with 4 bronze statues depicting four horsemen of the Apocalypse: Death, Revolution, War and Hunger. Can you guess which one is which? (Btw, Revolution is horseman of the Apocalypse? Wat?)
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Bonus pub quiz round: did you notice that all statues are hm…. er… anatomically correct depictions of men?
Now, back to similarities with Amsterdam: it is very common to have a first & last name printed near the entrance by the doorbell:
Of course, you have picturesque houses near water:
And old cars. Did I mention old cars?
I really like old cars. They have so many small details:
Moving on. Religion trying to be cool:
And for the end, I would like to share a couple pictures of windows. Seriously, you should spend more time looking at windows, they can tell different stories:
Sometimes, it can be a story of a dog having enough of Instagram posing:
