Buoyant Bruges

20 August 2017, Sunday: We are up at 8am. Dad empties the water tank as he sees that some unfriendly bits have contaminated our water. We drive the 3km back to Beernem where we empty the tank and fill up with clean fresh water. 13km further we stop on the ring road that runs around Bruges. At 11.30am we enter through the Gentpoort Gate.

The main tour of Bruges takes us approximately 4 hours of which we visit the following places. Church of Our Lady, Old St. John Hospital, St. Saviour’s Cathedral, The Belfry (here we have lunch), the City Hall at Burg Square where the Palace of Justice, Basilica of the Holy Blood and Bishop's Palace are also situated, and the Market Square framed by the Bruges Beer Museum, Provincial Court and Historium Museum. From there to St. James’s Church. Then the City Theatre, St. Walburga’s Church, St. Anne’s Church, Jerusalem Chapel, English Convent and St. Janshuis Mill.

Happy that we have done Bruges justice we head back to the Market Square for 3.15pm where a Grand Parade (float procession) is going through the streets of Bruges. We manage to get close to the road enabling us to photograph and video this event depicting the history of Bruges, which happens once every five years, the festivities lasting for two days. Two hours later the procession has passed and we return to Merzy, exiting the old city centre through the Kruispoort gate.

We punch in the coordinates of our site in Oostende and leave Bruges at 6.15pm. After two failed park4night attempts at the harbour, we stop just after 7pm at Maria-Hendrikapark situated around three lakes. We are four campers in a row and we enjoy a tranquil quiet evening.

Sleep-over spot near Beernem

Gentpoort Gate

Church of Our Lady - it took two centuries (13th-15th) to build the church

With its colossal height of 115 metres, the church tower is the second biggest brick tower in the world and also the biggest building in the city of Bruges

Tower of Church of Our Lady and the historic 11th-century St. John Hospital - Courtyard of Old St. John

Statue of mathematician Simon Stevin at Simon Stevin Square, best known for proving the law of equilibrium on an inclined plain

The 83-metre high Belfry is a medieval bell tower, one of the city's most prominent symbols

Bruges' City Hall (1376) is one of the oldest in the low countries. It is from here that the city has been governed for more than 600 years

This immaculate medieval relic is one of several administrative buildings which frame Burg Square

Horse drawn carriages at Burg Square

Palace of Justice, standing next to the City Hall. The outer part is painted with real gold

Belfry Tower and Bishop's Palace - Burg Square

Belfry Tower - side that's facing the Market Square

Bruges Beer Museum

Statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, popular local heroes, at the centre of the Market Square

Provincial Court Building (right) and Historium Museum (left) 

Traditional step-gable houses in the square

St. James's Church - splendid early Gothic church, founded in 1240, that was dedicated to St. James the Apostle

Pipe organ and marble high altar

Carved oak pulpit

Glass stained window

One of many beautiful altars

More step-gable buildings

The Bruges' Royal City Theatre (1869) is one of the best-preserved theatres of its kind in Europe 

The Belfry popping out its 'head' again. Tower of Historium (left) also peeping

The St. Walburga's Church is a 17th-century Roman-Catholic church built in a Baroque style

Elegant interior 

One of many canals

The simple Gothic single-nave St. Anne's Church

It surprises with the opulence of its Baroque interior

'Last judgement' fresco at the back of St. Anne's Church above the entrance 

Jerusalem Chapel, 15th-century structure, built in the age of pilgrimages to Jerusalem 

St. Janshuis Mill, built in 1770 and still occupying its original site, is still an active grain mill

#Belgium