Bruges Episode 1: Burg

Bruges...lovely Bruges. My favourite town in Belgium :) It was only unfortunate that I didn't know about it earlier, and had to fork out a load more euros to take the Thalys to Brussels (it's cheaper to take the train from Paris to Bruges, then the train around Belgium!)

We reached Bruges rather late at night, since the others weren't on holiday like me (I had finished my internship by this time) and they could only leave on Friday night. While waiting for the night bus to take us to our hostel, we took photos outside the train station.

Those four coloured bars seem to be a Belgium thing. I saw it again outside the train stations in Antwerp and in Ghent.

some weird stone seats outside the station...I wonder whether anyone ever sits there.

Our hostel takes up a whole stretch of buildings along one side of the road. The first building here is where we stayed, but the check-in building was several doors down.

a couple of interesting balconies on the way to town

the view from a bridge we crossed to get to town

the other side of the bridge (we took the boat ride later and passed this spot as well)

we arrived on the Burg square

a panorama view (or should I say "cut-paste end-to-end view" :P )

the town hall

the Governor's residence, maybe? (see next photo)

a national monument nicknamed "the Governor's carwash" because it's close to the Governor's residence

what you were wondering :P (click for larger version)

Chapel of the Holy Blood

inside
A lot of people walked up there to touch the vial which is supposed to contain Christ’s blood.

According to our brochure, in the basement of the Crowne Plaza hotel, we can find the ruins of the St. Donatian's Church. (It's just beside Burg square) So we went down to the basement.

I wonder whether this sign was put there by the hotel management...it looks kinda new.

Since this is episode 1, you can be sure that there will be episode 2...and there will be more than that! ;)