Day 4: BrugesOn every tour a bit of rain must fall....and for us, today was that day. Despite the rain our local guide was upbeat and provided a great walking tour of Bruges which included stops to view the amazing art of Memling, Van Eck, and Michelangelo. She pointed out fun details about the town including the three remaining wooden houses, the "eye brows" architectural details above the windows and helped us with a scavenger hunt for the city's symbol, a bear - they are everywhere! We ended our city tour with a chocolate demonstration and then explored a few sites on our own before regrouping for a tour of the De Halve Maan brewery and then ending the day with a lovely dinner on our own.
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Sites Visited
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Today's Highlights
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Today's ActivityWe picked up a few steps trooping through the rain around town, but most of my steps were taken after we broke away from our main group in the sunny afternoon. Making trips criss crossing town to pick up gifts and chocolate and then returning them to the hotel so we wouldn't have to carry them for the entire day increased our step total. Our hotel was located an easy 10-15 minute walk from the Grote Markt, well located off Van Eck square so it was easy to pop back and lighten our load. Today's peak stair climbing came during our tour of the De Halve Maan brewery. It's a compact location which meant we had to climb up and down some narrow stairs to check out the entire operation.
Totals for the day: 16,299 steps, 11 flights of stairs |
If I could do this day differently...
I would have wished harder for no rain during our city tour! Yes, in every tour some rain must fall, but gosh it can sure be miserable when you have a long city tour. Also, while we explored town in the afternoon, I would have picked out a restaurant and made a reservation for dinner - it was a Saturday night and by the time we got hungry, every place was booked! Thank goodness we managed to find a new little restaurant that had just opened, #Food, where we enjoyed a great meal.
Day 5: BrugesToday was totally free with no planned activities on the calendar, leaving us to explore Bruges on our own! Plus we were armed with our Bruges city ticket from yesterday, so we could dip into almost any of the town's sites without paying extra. In addition to a few city sites on my list of to-do's for today, knowing that we had a free day here allowed me to book a separate photography tour in advance, perfect for my father and me - we are total shutterbugs.
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Sites Visited
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Today's Highlights
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Today's ActivityFor our free day, we walked all over town! I took an early morning bike ride, which only netted me steps when I went over bumpy bits in the road. I'm totally going to count those as they were definitely felt! Our photo tour was a slow stroll around town, dodging showers here and there. Shopping the length of Steenstraat also added to our step total for the day. Today's peak stair climbing was no surprise: the climb to the top of the Belfry. Pro-Tip: It's a very doable spiral staircase with two way traffic, though it does get narrow at the top!
Totals for the day: 18,345 steps, 35 flights of stairs |
If I could do this day differently...
I loved having a 'Choose your own Adventure' day! Since it was a Sunday, I wish I had done a better job of checking the closing times of some of the shops. I wanted to visit Dumond in particular, but unfortunately they close at 1:30 on Sundays and I missed out.....I guess I'll just have to go back!