Bruges #3: Culture

Did you know? In the Middle Ages, Bruges was renowned for its diamonds and luxury goods industry. As a result, the diamond Museum is one of the many Museums on offer!

This post is on the culture in the city of Bruges. My boyfriend and I were here for only three days, but we were totally swept up in it all.

I’ve already spoken about the Beer, but we stumbled across a lovely ‘beer house’, which was like a giant pub spread across four floors, and down a little alley way:

Although on the way out it was obvious some couldn’t handle it:

Here’s a sneaky picture of the oldest pub in Bruges too (13^th Century):

Speaking of Beer, we had one of the best brewery tours I’ve ever been on during our stay here. The brewery was brand new and brews one of the most popular beers in Belgium, Bruges Zot.

The tour guide proceeded to tell us how asking for a non-alcoholic beer was one of the rudest things you can do to a Belgian, how anything under 4% “we give to children” and that workers used to get paid 7 pints of beer alongside their salary, leading to drunk Friday nights – “never make a baby on a Friday, it’s not good quality!”. I swear I spent most of my time laughing rather than focussing on the beer, she was hilarious!

Afterwards, we got a free beer. The brewery advertises itself a bit like a Museum, but it was certainly worth a tour. You also get a lovely rooftop view at one point!

Another Museum we visited was the ‘Choco-story’ of Bruges, tracing the story of chocolate from the Mayans all the way to today.

Amazingly, the cocoa bean was actually used as currency back in Mexico! At the end (past a mouthwatering giant chocolate egg), we watched a praline demonstration:

Elsewhere, we found an example of the non-chocolate artisans on offer in Bruges; namely Cuckoo clocks!

In this little Christmas themed shop there were also mini windmill ornaments (not sure if that’s the correct way to describe them) that were Christmas related. It certainly felt weird in July!

Candles are placed underneath, and then the heat from them turns the fan on the top. So sweet!

We were lucky enough to catch a candy demonstration too. As it’s not really what Bruges is known for it wasn’t a common feature, but the process was amazing nonetheless:

You start with melted sugar...

Add colouring...

Spread it...

Work with it once its cooled...

Then stretch it!

It keeps getting stretched and stretched until it becomes rock. We wanted to stay, but we had to be off to our next stop.

Bruges also has an array of fantastic churches, most of which are Catholic. The most famous is the Church of our Lady Bruges, as it holds a statue done by Michelangelo of the Madonna and Child. For those of you who have seen the film Monuments Men, this is the statue that was guarded by Hugh Bonneville against the Nazis!

The rest of the church wasn’t too bad either, despite the current conservation work:

We also found a two-story medieval church in one of the squares; a common feature of churches at the time. When we went in they were ‘venerating’ one of the relics, which is supposedly a piece of a saint or of Jesus himself. Sadly we didn’t get to see it up close, but the ceremony carried on while we explored the church:

Overall, Bruges is so worth a visit and I enjoyed every single second of it! The charm of the city is unique and it’s only a short ferry ride or plane journey away.

Until next time Bruges!