Witches in Belgium

Last weekend, I spent with Andrea and my parents some days in Bruges, whose name in Spanish is "Brujas", our word for "witches". I cannot help finding traces of the Spanish stay every time I visit Belgium: maybe they are not so evident for others, but, in my case, they make me feel a little bit more comfortable.

We had a quite long trip by train, going first to Brussels on ICE and taking then another train to Bruges. From there, it was easy and quick to find our hotel (Grand Hotel Casselbergh, highly recommended if you find a nice offer in Internet, otherwise...). For the way back, we had two hours in Brussels, so we decided to go for a walk around Grand Place.

Bruges is called "Venice of the North" and it is true that it belongs to the limited group of cities which can be compared with Venice in equal terms. Its medieval city centre is perfectly preserved and, after some minutes of walk, it is easy to feel like long time ago. The canals surrounding the city centre also contribute to create this charming atmosphere. Central landmark is the tower of Belfort (by the way, it strongly reminds me the Dark Tower of Mordor, from Lord of the Rings) but Bruges is full of cosy corners, as you can see in the other pictures of this post.

As in Venice, one can also feel that the best years of Bruges are long gone. Somehow, the city has a decadent air, although not so strong as in Venice. Being probably too demanding, sometimes it even looks like a medieval Disneyland, given the huge amount of tourists that it has on weekends and the few "real life" that one observes. Nevertheless, this is only when we are too demanding: in overall terms, the city is really fantastic.On Brussels, there is not much new to say, since we only stayed around the cathedral, the Parc, Galeries de Saint Hubert, the Grand Place and the Manneken Pis. The latter is only remarkable as a symbol of the city: do not expect more from it because you will be quite disappointed. On the other hand, the buildings around the Grand Place are simply breathtaking: something you do not find easily in other places in Europe.I must say that the positive tone of this post is due also to the fact that we had blue sky along the weekend, something which is highly improbable when travelling to Belgium. With blue sky, life and cities are definitively more beautiful.