Bruges seems to be pretty accurately portrayed in the movie, In Bruges. It’s a sleepy town that doesn’t seem terribly active in the evening and is bustling with tourists during the day.
Arrival
We arrived a bit earlier than anticipated so had an hour to kill prior to meeting our Airbnb host. We followed the crowds leaving the train station and surprisingly ended up in a shopping district. I had assumed we’d end up in old town / near the town square but this probably worked out better. Hello ice cream my old friend!
The streets in this area are narrow cobblestone paths. Theoretically there is space for 2 cars to pass (my American, space loving mind questions it). However, the sidewalks are narrow and the people are abundant – they filled all the available space. Keep in mind this isn’t one of those roads that’s been turned into a permanent pedestrian path. Nope! Vehicles and bicycles are equally common which makes for an interesting dance.
The cars and bikes know they have the right of way and the throngs of people are mostly (there’s always one or two in a group paying attention and prodding their party out of the way) oblivious to their presence. We got some ice cream and a seat on a concrete pillar and watched the shenanigans. I can say that in the course of almost an hour, I only heard a single horn sound. We did observe an irate bicyclist get off his bike and tell someone off but it was in Dutch so I can’t confirm this.
Ice cream and contemplation
During our ice cream and contemplation time, we also observed someone from the parks department come empty all the trash cans. Not terribly interesting? Ha! This was a very manly parks man: he’s far too tough for diseases and obviously doesn’t need to wear gloves. The best part though was that he systematically emptied all of the trash cans of their trash and bags. He did not, however, replace the bags. We debated the reason for this for some time before deciding that he’s trying to make the trash cans as manly as he is!
PS the Praline ice cream was amazing and is my new favorite ? There are no pictures of said ice cream because ice cream.
