Beautiful Bruges: our visit to Belgium’s prettiest city

Headed to Belgium with the family? Bruges with kids is about as good as it gets. From canal rides to breweries to a french fry museum, there’s something for everyone here in Belgium’s most beautiful city.

Our visit to Bruges with kids

With only three-and-a-half days in Belgium with the kids, we had to be selective about our itinerary. However, there was no doubt that Bruges was always going to make the cut! The only question was how much time: originally I figured we’d go in the morning and maybe get back to Brussels in time to do whatever activity we missed the first day. Later, I considered splitting Wednesday between Bruges and Ghent. Once we got there, however, we knew we needed a whole day in Bruges with kids. And even then, we didn’t see everything — if we were to go again, I’d want to make sure we had at least a full 24 hours in Bruges!

Where is Bruges: Bruges is located in the northwest part of Belgium, in West Flanders. It took us a little more than an hour to get there from Brussels by car, and was an easy drive once we escaped the traffic in Brussels. Our friends who went to Belgium sans car took the train from Brussels to Bruges and said it cost 14 euro each.

Where to park in Bruges: We originally intended to park in the Biekorf car park, which is beneath the city’s municipal library and located only 50 meters from the Markt. However, by the time we arrived (around 11) it was already full. We went looking for another garage, but quickly found ample street parking available and opted to do that. One thing to know about street parking in Bruges is that you can only do it four hours at a time (costs about 9 euro), so Chris had to run back to feed the meter once while we were there. Luckily, Bruges is quite a compact town.

What we did in Bruges with kids: Upon arriving, our first step (after securing some pain au chocolat from a nearby bakery) was to head immediately for the Markt. The Markt is basically the heart of this UNESCO World Heritage town, and it is surrounded by the town’s iconic 12th century Belfry and the Cloth Hall. In the middle are statues of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, a butcher and weaver respectively, who led an uprising against King Philip “the Fair” of France, in 1302. They are seen symbols of Flemish patriotism.

When we arrived, there actually was a farmer’s market going on in the Markt. Toward the end of the day we picked up some strawberries and what Chris described as inexplicably the best orange he’d ever had in his life. We are completely surrounded by oranges here in Sicily, but he has to go to frosty Bruges for the best? Go figure. Bruges with kids.

For lunch, we broke one of our own money-saving rules and ate at a restaurant right on the popular square. Did we probably overpay because of the touristy location? Yeah. But our meal at Le Panier d’Or was tasty, so no real regrets.

As discussed in several other posts, Plus Plus blocks continue to be our secret weapon for compliant kids! These things will keep them both occupied for an impressively long time. At the suggestion of the genius friend who gifted us to them, we try to only let the kids play with them when we are on trips so they don’t get tired of them. 

Our big priority for this trip wasn’t going inside any of the buildings in Bruges, but more walking around the city itself. In particular, I was adamant that I wanted to do a canal ride and it did end up being my favorite part of the day. When we first arrived in Bruges, I was afraid that it was too cold to be on a boat but honestly, we weren’t any colder than we were while walking around

The views from the boat were awesome! It was our favorite way of seeing the city.

The canal ride was about half an hour long and cost about 6 euro per adult.

After that, it was time for a chocolate refuel at a shop called Pralinette, where we had the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. Insanely rich. This shouldn’t be too surprising though, as it proved to be just a big chunk of chocolate tossed into steamed milk to melt. Nom nom.

Well, hey there, chocolates. 

While there were a couple stops we considered in the afternoon, we ultimately decided to make a kid-centric stop at the Freitmuseum since, after all, we’d come to Bruges with kids. The Museum of Fries! It was obviously not like, high culture, but it was fun and quirky and the kids enjoyed themselves. And they sold excellent fries in the basement.

Just your standard educational potato art! 

The museum included a play area where kids can pretend to make their own fries in a frite truck! The kids spent ages here. The adults sat at the table and were served the fries.

I defy you to find a cuter pair of fry cooks anywhere in the universe. 

SPEAKING OF FRIES …

The search for the frite truck. It happened. But does not have an especially satisfying resolution.

So, as I talk about in THIS POST, my parents took me and my three younger siblings backpacking in Europe when I was 13. One of our stops was Bruges, where my parents had visited in 1985 and discovered a frite truck they thought was amazing. To their surprise, it was still there in 2001! We ate there like four times in two days.

SO. A major goal of ours (ok, mine) was to find this frite truck, if it still existed (note: I didn’t know where it actually was). So when we got to the Markt, I pretty quickly found a pair of frite trucks hanging out there that seemed like they … could have been them? I wasn’t quite sure. I resolved to look around a little more to try to figure it out, but we got distracted and had lunch. Afterward, I ended up deciding to just ask the guy working at one of them whether the truck had been there since 1985. After spending some time teasing me, he informed me that while he had been working there for just a few years, these trucks had been operating since the 1890s. I wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t pulling my leg, but he whipped out a phone and showed me a picture of it that supposedly was from the 50s. Ok then, I was fairly convinced. But at this point, we’d already eaten lunch and were super full, so we resolved to stop back on the way out.

… and then we had a canal ride and chocolate and walking all over the city and the Freitmuseum. And consequently had two extremely whiny children who were claiming they couldn’t walk and needed to be hauled back to the car.

And WE FORGOT.

I’m literally still kicking myself as I write this, and it was like a week and a half ago. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Mom, Dad, Mike, Torie and Jay: I’M SORRY!

But seriously, go to Bruges. Go to Bruges alone. Go to Bruges with adults. Go to Bruges with kids. Any way you go, it is lovely.

PS. I even found a picture of the frite truck in the museum!

PPS. If you are going, you might also consider a visit to the De Halve Maan brewery. We opted not to go this time, but Chris and his friend were there in October and said the tour was “awesome.” My beer-snob husband said the beers he sampled were “alright, kind of meh” but notes he didn’t try them all. I assume that means I’d like them, as tragically I haven’t yet achieved his level of beer snobbery.