Bruges

 

 Bruges is a historic and quaint little town outside of Brussels that was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It's lovely to walk around for a day to take in the sites and sounds and immerse yourself into the history of the city - it's very easy to imagine here how people used to live since the historic city center has remained relatively unchanged (well a few exceptions exist - such as electricity).

 

The Markt and Burg squares are bustling and vibrant and the architecture of the Churches, Gates and Canals are fantastic.

We saw a huge line of people enter into what looked like a sketchy little alleyway to some seedy bar - and instead we were pleasantly surprised when we walked through the entrance way to the end and saw a huge wall of beer:

 

A great surprise right? A little exploration in Bruges can clearly go a long way.

Belgian Pralines! There were a ton of shops in Bruges and I think we walked into every one of them. We liked the look of the truffles at Pralinette and decided to walk in and buy a sample of truffles:

We got one or two of each to sample - they were amazing! Fresh little morsels of chocolate-y goodness. The praline was classic and wonderfully done and they had some different flavours from types we usually see in Canada - including creme fraiche, fine champagne and noir & blanc.

After the chocolate bonanza, we went to the Markt for lunch. One of the restaurants overlooking the bustling Markt was La Civierre D'Or (http://www.lacivieredor.be/). The back of the menu had celebrities and other famous people signing that they've eaten here - so we decided that was pretty good endorsement and sat down at a table (we were also looking to try waterzooi, another Belgian food specialty)

First course: shrimp croquettes (R) and Zeebrugge fish soup (L). 

The shrimp croquettes were good but the outer shell was kinda hard and dry. The soup was "interesting" - not something we would have tried on our own and not really to our tastes.

Second course: The top picture has a close up of the Chicken Waterzooi (waterzooi is a classic Flemish stew with vegetables) and the bottom picture has a close up of Flemish stew with Beef and potatoes with lingoberry sauce on top.

The Waterzooi was very creamy and watery, while the Flemish stew was more hearty but the sauce was slightly odd. Not the best meal we've had in Belgium.

The apple strudel/cake partially made up for the lacklustre entrées. The cake was moist and the apple stuff in the middle was delicious & the whipped cream was great!