Bruges. My husband and I made a pact that we would try not to visit places we had been to and try new places. So here we are in this delightful little town that is designed for making pretty postcards.
The town comes alive with a full array of sights, sounds and smells. Church bells pealing, bicycles all over the place, barely a car in sight.
The clip clip of the horses pulling carriages, many of them driven by women, gives way to a quartet of buskers playing “Africa” on an unexpected pocket off the streets.
Insane architectural wonders wherever you look. Gothic meets Flemish is the general style. Europe, slightly altered.
The sweet aroma of waffles dominates the air occasionally interrupted by the contradictory aroma of frites, locally famous potato fries that are sold at every street corner. Suddenly you get a hit of chocolate from one of the many chocolate shops that claim to be home made, then the aromatic coffee smells wafting out of the myriad coffee shops that line the cobblestone streets and you are taking in the summer flowers on full bloom, walking over bridges that go over the canals that criss cross the town; while tour boats and ducks and swans co exist peacefully side by side.
Churches, hot chocolate, summer flowers and canals. How much joy encapsulated in one day.
Then back to our charming little hotel that’s a converted home from the 1700’s where we enjoy coffee in the patio, which has a little fountain and lots of beautiful plants and a pot of lavender on each table. And what I love the most? The chocolate on the pillow!
Blessed to be able to spend lazy days that begin when your eyes open and you eat what you want when you like. The company is warm and comfortable and weather perfect. The husband is in good health and humor, what more can one want.
And we end a day of walking the town, people watching in coffee shops, and having fabulous meals, with an impromptu concert.
