Last month my husband and I celebrated my 44th birthday in beautiful Bruges… It was one of our quality-time days (as prescribed by yours truly in this post!) so we dropped the kids off at school and headed to Bruges just the two of us (I felt a bit sorry for my youngest daughter as it was her birthday as well… I went off to Bruges having a fab time whilst she had to go to school…).

Bruges, a Belgian town in Flanders not far from the coast, has many beautiful medieval buildings and attracts thousands and thousands of tourists every year. The historical center of Bruges is on the UNESCO world heritage list.

We don’t do museums very often, but this time we made an exception and visited Historium. This museum can be highly recommended! It is located on the grounds of the former Waterhalle, a covered harbour which had a unique construction. The Waterhalle building was built like a trestle over the waters of the Reie river. Its ground floor consisted of a navigable waterway and quays enabling ships to unload their cargo and store it on the first floor, which served as a warehouse. On the ground floor under the open arches were shops which gave on to the market square. Unfortunately the building was demolished in the 19th century but in this exhibition it is brought back to live through computer technology (source :  Historium).

Seven themed rooms with decors, films and special effects, transport you back to 1435.

Everything of course is historically correct. After this computer animated experience, you can visit the exhibition on Bruges during the golden age. There is also a panoramic terrace which gives you a lovely view on the market of Bruges with its Belfort and lots of medieval buildings.

After our visit to the museum, we went to the Duvelorium Grand Beer Café, also on the grounds of Historium. Here you can taste heaps of Belgian beers. For those who like a stronger beer, Duvel can be recommended, but I drank a Vedett which is less strong. We had a cheese and breadsticks platter to accompany our beers and with a beautiful view of the market, we enjoyed our beer-apéro.

Then we headed to Narai Thai, a Thai restaurant in the Smedenstraat. We enjoyed a fabulous three course menu, accompanied by a fresh bottle of rosé. The first course was a salad with duck meat, then we were served two dishes on a hot tray : a fish in a spicy sweet ‘n sour sauce and a chicken curry. Both were served with baked rice and vegetables. Our desert was a fruit salad with a scoop of vanilla icecream and lots of chantilly. Needless to say we left the restaurant with a full and satisfied stomach a couple of hours later!

After our lunch we did a bit of shopping in the Steenstraat, the main shopping street of Bruges, we made a few more photos at the market and at the Rozenhoedkaai (check out this LBD post!). As it also was my youngest daughter’s birthday, we headed home quite early as we wanted to celebrate our birthdays together of course!

So… another great trip… on to the next I’d say 🙂

Love, Kathleen

Here you can read about a trip to Knokke, which is only a 20 minute drive from Bruges.