Day 1: GIRONA - CHARLEROI AIRPORT - BRUSSELS - BRUGES
Friday, October 8, 2010
After a few months preparing this getaway to Belgium, Finally the day has come. The alarm sounds at 6 in the morning, as always when we go on vacation, we have to get up early. We still have many things what to see in Bruges and Brussels.
We take the car and we are on our way to Girona airport, we have our flight at 9.30, so we have time to have breakfast and rest for a while, before boarding.
As always when we fly with Ryanair, we have to carry "just" a lump "hand, which means, make a puzzle in the suitcase, to place everything ...
While at the boarding gate, a woman tells us that on the 12th (the day of our return), there is a strike in France and they have canceled many flights ... we look at the list and ours is not ...
From today we have to go looking every day to see how things are going ... in case we have to change the return tickets!
Our first task is to reach Bruges from Charleroi.
We arrive at Charleroi airport punctual and we are going to look for the shuttle that takes to Brussels, to the Midi station, finding it on the right, just leaving the airport, where at the same ticket office we get the tickets (22 euros per person, round trip) and we get in the queue.
The first bus fills up quickly, so we have to wait for the second one, in which we make a very fast journey and in just under an hour and we arrived in Brussels from the airport.
Book your Brussels Airport transfer here
There we see that it is already 1 and something and after breakfast so early, we see that it is best to eat at the station and then continue to Bruges, where we will be the next 2 nights.
We eat something fast and before 2 o'clock we are already taking out the Rail Pass to get on the way.
The Rail Pass costs us 74 euros and is 10 tickets, valid for one year. We are lucky that in 5 minutes one leaves for Bruges and we go straight to the platform.
The Midi station in Brussels is very large and at the beginning it costs a bit to locate, but once you've taken a couple of turns, everything is easier.
Although for now we have not found a way to get tickets from the machines ... impossible! There is no slot for tickets and the Visa does not work (???)
The journey is 55 minutes and we arrive at the station Bruges from Charleroi passing by the Brussels train station
We left with our map in hand and decided that staying at the Hotel Loreto, very close to the center, where we do not have much distance, we will take it easy and go walking.
From the station to the center, there is a nice and pleasant walk and they are not more than 10 minutes walk.
On this walk we begin to intuit all that Bruges has to show us and we begin to fall in love with this city.
Witches
At the moment it seems that we have not left Spain, at every moment we meet Spaniards ... so that later they say we do not travel!
We start traveling the street of the Loreto hotel, until we reach the San Salvador Cathedral, we went to visit it and there we rested for a while.
It is one of the few times that we can enter a European Cathedral or Church without paying, this catches our attention.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Brussels
- 50 things to see and do in Brussels
- The 5 best tours and excursions in Brussels
- 10 essential places to visit in Brussels
- 10 places to visit in Bruges essential
We continue walking until we reach Markt, the most famous square in Bruges.
There we stopped to have a drink on one of its terraces, before we have had enough of taking pictures of the square, from all angles.
Markt Square in Bruges
After resting and cooling off for a while, we are heading to the Church of the Holy Blood, which is very close to Mark.
We see that the schedules have passed us and we decide that tomorrow we will come in the morning to visit it inside.
This is when we decide that Bruges deserves more than one day of visit and we choose to leave our visit to Ghent for another trip.
Our idea was to go tomorrow morning, but we think the best is dedicate all day to Bruges.
Great excuse to return to Belgium !!
Recommended travel cardsRemember that in order not to pay commissions and always have the current change we recommend you use the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to get money at the ATMs. They are the ones we use, They are free and will save you a lot.
You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.
Then we are on our way to Blind Donkey Alley, where in the end there are spectacular views of one of the canals.
We are having a good time taking photos and we decide that the rest of the afternoon we will dedicate to strolling through the center.
We are following the course of the channels and we find people everywhere ...
Then we approach the Minnewater, the famous park full of swans, where we have a good time walking and taking pictures, especially in the area of the bridge that overlooks the Begijnhof.
Here there is a special atmosphere and stunning views.
Canals of Bruges
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But this part is more crowded than the rest of the city! We do not know if this will be today because it is Saturday or it will be the same every day.
When we realize, it is 8 pm and we are already hungry so we look for a restaurant.
This takes us an hour, not so much for the choice, but for the opportunity to take a walk watching the illuminated city.
In the end we end up in a restaurant, near Mark, where we eat very well and Roger tries the famous moules avec frites !!
After this, we take a walk around Mark, to take some photos at night and go to the Loreto Hotel to rest.
Tomorrow touches more !!!
Day 2WITCHES
