In Bruges

Bruges was one of the last places on my (extended) bucket list.* The little town in Belgium has lingered on the list for many years, floating around the middle, high enough to remain one of the few cities left on the list, but not quite high enough to go out of the way for it. But such is the ease and compactness of travel in Europe that we squeezed a visit in for a weekend trip while we were staying in Amsterdam.

We left on a Friday morning and took the Eurostar from Amsterdam to Brussels, where we changed, and then took a second local train to Bruges. The entire trip was just over 3 hours. We arrived at Bruges train station in the afternoon and walked from there into the centre of the old town to our hotel. Many of Europe’s cities have beautiful old towns characterised by their cobblestone streets, stone buildings, tree-lined squares and ancient footbridges crossing over canals or small rivers. Bruges is no exception, although it is possibly one of the prettiest of them all.

We stayed at the beautiful Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, a boutique waterfront hotel located at the intersection of two small canals in the historic centre. We stayed in a canal view room, overlooking the tour boats passing by, and which was apparently the room featured in the movie In Bruges.

After settling into our room, we spent time in the afternoon exploring the narrow passageways of the cobblestoned streets around our hotel, immediately noticing the frequency of chocolate, beer and waffle shops. The wall to wall displays of hundreds of varieties of beer were insane.

We realised we were going to need to be strategic about our chocolate consumption and so decided we would research the best chocolate stores before diving in.

Instead, we sat ourselves at a brewery on the canal to experience Belgium beer and plan our chocolate shopping. Dylan had a tasting paddle and I had a cherry lambic beer. And for the first time in my life I finished a whole beer.

Later that night, we had dinner at Franco Belge. It was a warm mid-summer evening and so we were seated outside in the courtyard, where at 8.00pm the sun was still high in the sky. We enjoyed their delicious set menu with matching wines.

After dinner we had one drink at Anda lounge bar, which had unexpectedly good cocktails, before heading to bed.

The next morning we had waffles and eggs for breakfast at the hotel before taking a boat tour on the canal.

Despite being the obviously touristy thing to do, it was excellent. Our guide was fantastic and we learnt all about the history of Bruges as we navigated the canals, delighting in the little surprises revealed around each new corner.

Afterwards, we had morning tea at a cosy cafe called The Novel because the reviews indicated we might find a good brownie there. We had excellent flat whites and Dylan had what he described as the “best brownie of his life”. Our chocolate exploration had officially began.

We spent the next hour or so going to the chocolate shops we had marked and buying handmade truffles and chocolates for us as well as gifts to take home for family. The best were Pol Depla Chocolatier and The Chocolate Line.

We had a late lunch reservation at Assiette Blanche, which after the morning tea and chocolate, was a struggle. The food was simple but delicious and we wished we’d had room to eat more.

We then headed back to the train station for our return journey to Amsterdam, bags and tummies full of Belgium delights.

• I say extended bucket list because my original bucket list - created when I was 15 years old - had only 5 items on it (which I completed this year with Antarctica). I then had a bucket list of ten places, and now I have a rather fluid one that evolves with experience and age and also with specificity.