Has anybody been?

Me and the GF are heading over on the Ferry (yay! I only sleep well on ships) in a few weeks. Anything we should look out for in particular?

We'll be at the Christmas Market drinking glühwein for the most part, just wondered if there is anything in particular Bruges is noted for.

Cheers

Spent New Year there back in 1999. It is a lovely town, especially at night. Best to wait until after 1st Advent, once the whole town is lit up (although they might start early for the tourists).

I spent a while there a couple of years back. There are some really good restaurants in the area around the cathedral and it's a nice place to just walk around.

Aye it should be all lit up, it's in 2 or 3 weeks we go.


I get the impression it's just one of those nice towns that you meander around and drink coffee and glühwein. Hopefully it'll be snowing but I doubt it.

I presume English is ok as it's a tourist place? I haven't spoken French for years, the GF speaks German but I imagine the main language is Flemish. I read somewhere some tourists found they got short shrift if they tried to speak French and advise just sticking to English.

I didn't have any problems, but I wouldn't assume everyone does. A lot of time, I would talk to someone say in a shop and they'd kind of go 'ah' and point me at one of their colleagues, so I suspect most places have a good spread in their staff. I didn't meet anyone who gave me a hard time for speaking English.


To me, Bruges felt much less French than say Brussels did. I suspect it's a bit like going to Barcelona and speaking Castilian Spanish rather than Catalan Spanish. Most people will be fine with it but some people will kind of take against you. TBH I think you might do better with English, given chances are a lot of people there will speak better English than you speak French, no offence meant. If your GF has good German, that might actually be a better fallback if your French isn't good.

Jon

No offence taken, their English is probably better than mine.

Last time I spoke French fluently was when I was drunk in Canada, no idea where it all came flooding back from TBH.

I've been & it was nice enough, but the smell was not pleasant.

The canals I take it?

Indeed, it was rather unpleasant. Still, it is a nice town - just brace yourself for the stench.

Will do, but hopefully the brisk winter air will temper it down more than what it must be like in the summer time.

Watch In Bruges and visit all the places in it. That's what I did when I went with Nick Miners last year. Such a wonderful little place.
I have pics of the trip here

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll have a goosey.

Not too big a goosey though, I don't want to fill my photohead with your pics before I take mine.

There's a reason for that

Belgium has two halves that really don't get on; this is the reason that they can't form a government. The southern half is called Wallonia and mainly speaks French; the northern half is Flanders and mainly speaks Dutch or Flemish, a dialect of Dutch.

"Brugge" (as the locals call it) is very firmly in the Dutch half, so avoid French unless absolutely necessary.

P.S. Some locals might not be too keen on German either

English it is then.

Quite proper too! We should have some benefit for owning a large part of the world at one point for goodness sake! Either understand me or await me repeating myself in a much louder fashion!

* Tips hat and walks off in a jaunty fashion *

With the freezing temperatures around New Year, I didn't notice any smell.

Edit: It was 2001 that I was there... Just loading some pics on Flickr


Rathaus um Nacht.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr


Innenstadt um Nacht.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr


Innenstadt um Nacht 3.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr


Le Panier D'Or um Nacht.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr


Gothisch Turmspitze um Nacht.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr


Der Kanal und Boot um Nacht.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr