Insight Guides - Insight Guides: Explore Bruges

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2017 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Art enthusiasts

Admire Flemish Primitives, Bosch and the Symbolists at the Groeninge ( ).

Gregory Wrona/Aps Publications

Escaping the crowds

Follow the lapping waters of the Langerei to the charming museum of Our Lady of the Pottery church ( ).

Gregory Wrona/Apa Publications

Children

Wander along canals past fishermen and houseboats on the way to the Astrid Park ( ).

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Food and drink

Chocoholics will get a tasty treat at Choco-Story ( ).

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Green spaces

Discover a real secret garden, the Hof Sebrechts Park ( ).

iStock

Historians

Stalk the haunts of medieval merchants ( ).

Georgie Scott/Apa Publications

Rainy days

Situated side by side, the Groeninge and Arentshuis museums are ideal for an indoor day ( ).

Bruges Tourism

Romantic Bruges

Watch swans glide over the mirror-like Minnewater, the Lake of Love ( ).

Bruges Tourism

Explore Bruges

Medieval Bruges is one of Europes most romantic destinations. Canals meander around gabled almshouses, Gothic churches, world-class art galleries and boutique hotels, all packaged in a central district less than 2km (1.25 miles) across.

Bruges Brugge to its residents is a provincial town that hit the big time with its cloth trade in the Middle Ages, riding high for 400 years before sinking into oblivion, cut off from the world. Centuries on, 19th-century heritage enthusiasts chanced upon the time-capsule city and shook it from its Sleeping Beauty slumber, restoring it to a splendour that celebrates the Gothic and Baroque, Renaissance and modern.

The city may live off its past but it is not content to reside there. A startlingly modern music venue, incessant property renovation, chic new restaurants and a lively programme of contemporary dance, experimental music and film disprove accusations that it is little more than a museum piece. Yes, tourism dominates the city, but it is fantastically easy to escape the crowds.

The canals are just as atmospheric at night

iStock

Geography

This city of around 20,000 people is located 11km (7 miles) from the North Sea coast and is the capital of West Flanders, a province that contains the entire 67km (42 miles) of Belgiums coastline and is bordered by France, the Netherlands and the provinces of Hainaut (in French-speaking Wallonia) and East Flanders.

With the reclaimed polders of the maritime plain to the north and west, and sandy pastoral land to the east and south, the municipality of Bruges includes three distinct areas: the historic centre (a Unesco World Heritage Site), contained by a 7km- (4-mile) long ring canal along the line of the former city walls; the suburbs, named after historic parishes situated outside the walls: Sint-Michiels, Sint-Andries, Sint-Jozef and so on; and a tongue of land stretching north to the sea, including the village of Lissewege and the port of Zeebrugge.