04 June, 2005

Belgique: Bruges/ Brugge known to be 'the Venice of the North'

Embarrassing? I know! Such a small city...how could we have gotten lost!?

Vineyard in the middle of the city.























One beer a day keeps the doctor away!


Breweries!
Nice collection of beer glasses

view from the brewery
Downtown
old mill from the 13th century






Brugges' city hall
Center Square





Belgian beer! Waiting for the famous moules et frites








One of the symbols of Bruges is the swan. There are always plenty of them on the 'Minnewater'. There exists a nice legend about the swans of Bruges. In 1488 the people of Bruges had executed one of the town administrators belonging to the court of Maximilian of Austria, husband and successor of duchess Mary of Burgundy. The town administrator was called 'Pieter Lanchals', a name which means ' long neck'. The Lanchals family coat of arms featured a white swan. Legend has it that Maximilian punished Bruges by obliging the population to keep swans on their lakes and canals till eternity. Most of these legends and romantic interpretations come from the 19th century.
Swans are Bruges' pigeons...hehehe


Small town called Dammes. Not having anything else to do in Bruges we drove around & found some cute small villages.




Dammes' city hall.

No comments: