Bruges looks like it was built from the drawings in a medieval storybook. We spent two days in Bruges. It's seeing what Paris must have looked like before Napoleon knocked down much of the city and rebuilt it with wide avenues.
(Bruges has an interesting history. In the middle ages and early Renaissance, it was one of Europe's central trading hubs. It became one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, with a huge Cathedral and beautiful art. However, Bruges access to water silted over, and it became a backwater. Fast forward several hundred years: the Germans have destroyed large areas of Belgium (twice). That meant that the towns that had original middle ages architecture were largely gone. Except Bruges. Why? Other than architecture, Bruges wasn't worth bombing. Today it's a tourist hub/fancy place for rich people to retire.)
Brussels is great. Rick Steves warned that it's more grimy and city-like than Paris or Bruges. However, Gideon and I really like Brussels. It reminds us of San Francisco. We spent the majority of our time going to the brew/pubs recommended in our beer guide.
(For me, there's also the fundamental fact that this City is chill. There's something eminently livable about Brussels--- not much to see, but its a nice place to chill.)
I didn't realize how much we packed into Paris until we took the time to slow down in Belgium. Tomorrow we leave for Amsterdam and I'm really looking forward to this leg of the trip.
(The one thing we have been doing is hitting Lambic breweries. We've hit 3 so far, and we'll hit more if we can find them. These are breweries that are only found in Belgium, and largely Brussels. Lambic beers are beers that ferment with wild yeast that naturally occur in Belgium. I'll talk about this more in the next blog entry.)
One last thing before we leave Belgium: the bikes! The bike culture here is amazing. There are bike stations next to every metro station and each has about 25 bikes for rent. These bikes can be dropped off at other bike stations throughout the city. In California, good city planning means there are bike lanes, enough lighting and plenty of places to lock your bike. Here it's different. And it's not just that the driving behavior is different around bikes. Bikes are just another element of getting around - they're incorporated on a much more fundamental level into the city's infrastructure. From what I've read, Amsterdam is even more supportive of bikes. Bikes would need to be a common part of the American cityscape for another 30 years before we could even approach what Belgium has.
