Day out to Brugge and Gent
16/10/03 17:43 Filed in: Travel
The plan was
always that we'd have a day trip out to
Bruges/Brugge. This seemed to be best on Saturday. we
got the train from Noord with a special weekend train
ticket that gives a 40% saving for two people and
would allow a trip out on Saturday and return on
Sunday if we wanted. There are plenty of trains going
from Brussels to Bruges, about every hour. The trains
were great and we stepped off at Bruges station about
1 hour after leaving Brussels. There are a set of
regular buses that can ferry you into the centre of
Bruges for €1 single.
We had a wander around Bruges, and you can immediately tell that 1) it is popular with tourists - there were loads there even on a late September Saturday.; 2) that we are in a Flemish region rather than the bilingual Brussels city. So Brugge is pretty but it was distracting with so many other tourists. There plenty of boats plying their trade of touring around the canals. Horse-drawn carriages to tour the town or even hire bicycles.
It was Ok, it was pretty and we left and stopped off at Gent. It is a longer trip to get from the station to the centre of town. In fact we jumped on and off two trams. Still the centre has a number of squares and less tourists. There are canals and pretty buildings including De Hel - yes Hell. We wandered around had some Australian ice cream (?) and had an early evening meal. We enjoyed Gent more than Brugge.
Jumping back on the train at Gent we arrived back in Brussels at about 21:00. A good day out made easy by good public transport again.
We had a wander around Bruges, and you can immediately tell that 1) it is popular with tourists - there were loads there even on a late September Saturday.; 2) that we are in a Flemish region rather than the bilingual Brussels city. So Brugge is pretty but it was distracting with so many other tourists. There plenty of boats plying their trade of touring around the canals. Horse-drawn carriages to tour the town or even hire bicycles.
It was Ok, it was pretty and we left and stopped off at Gent. It is a longer trip to get from the station to the centre of town. In fact we jumped on and off two trams. Still the centre has a number of squares and less tourists. There are canals and pretty buildings including De Hel - yes Hell. We wandered around had some Australian ice cream (?) and had an early evening meal. We enjoyed Gent more than Brugge.
Jumping back on the train at Gent we arrived back in Brussels at about 21:00. A good day out made easy by good public transport again.
|