We spent a night in Paris near the train station then woke up the next day and headed over to Bruges (by way of Brussels) for 3 nights. We had arrived at Paris Gare de Lyon just before 11pm from Nice so we stayed at a hotel a very short walk (less than 5 minutes) from the train station entrance (Mercure Paris Gare de Lyon; https://all.accor.com/hotel/2217/index.en.shtml) then we slept in, grabbed some breakfast from a bakery, and made our way over to the nearby Paris Gare de Nord for our train to Brussels. We decided to take the slow (3 hour) train instead of the faster (about 1 hour) Eurostar train – the slower train was around 1/3 of the price and we weren’t in a hurry. Once we got to Brussels, we caught an intercity train over to Bruges then a bus to our hotel – the Hotel Acacia (https://www.hotel-acacia.com/en/). We had stayed at this hotel on a prior trip to Bruges and really liked it – it’s super close to the main square but is also tucked away and quiet. Once we dropped our bags we headed out to explore. We love Belgian beer so we made a stop at The Bottle Shop (https://www.thebottleshop.be) to check out their extensive collection of Belgian beer for sale! The shelf in the right-hand picture is just their local Bruges beers.
The last time we were in Bruges was the end of August 2024 (for Chris’ birthday). It was the tail end of the summer season so it was decently crowded but not too crazy. This time were there off season (late February) so it was definitely less crowded – although not deserted by any means. The bad part about this time of year is the iffy weather and we did have rain off and on while we were there – but it didn’t get in our way! Bruges is beautiful any time of day but it really is particularly beautiful all lit up at night.
We went to visit a brewery in town called Bourgogne des Flanders (https://www.bourgognedesflandres.be/en). We really liked their Blonden Os beer during our last trip and had gone to the brewery to taste their lineup. But on that trip we somehow missed that they had a water-side patio! Unfortunately on this trip the weather wasn’t really conducive to sitting out there but we enjoyed the beer nonetheless! Their website explains their long history of brewing (https://www.bourgognedesflandres.be/en/history) – what’s interesting is that when I went to Bruges for the first time in 2011, De Halve Maan (more on them below) was the only brewery within the town. But Bourgogne des Flanders returned to town in 2015.
We started with a flight then we got full pours of our 2 favorites – the Triplen Os (a Belgian Tripel) and the Brewers Playground: Coffee & TV (a strong coffee stout).
After that we walked around town and enjoyed all of the cool old buildings. We had visited a bunch of the sights on our last trip so this time we didn’t go inside but just enjoyed the atmosphere around town.
We stopped at a place called Fritbar for some excellent fries (by the way – “French” fries didn’t originate in France – they originated in Belgium). It’s a popular place and the line was pretty long but it was easy to get in for just the 2 of us (there was a large group in front of us in line that had to wait for a table that fit all of them – they were not very happy that we got to skip ahead!)
Then we headed over to our scheduled tour at De Halve Maan Brewery (Brouwerij in Dutch/Flemish). By the way, Belgium is split into 2 main regions – the Flanders region is the northern half and they speak Flemish (a variation on Dutch). The southern half is Wallonia and is French-speaking (if you don’t speak Dutch or Flemish and you’re in Flanders – just speak English; they apparently don’t like it when people speak French to them but everyone spoke English).
The De Halve Maan brewery (https://www.halvemaan.be/en) is right in town and they brew their beer on site. They have a Classic tour (45 minutes, includes 1 beer, €16) and an XL Tour (90 minutes, 3 beers, €26). We did the XL Tour.
The XL tour is described as follows: “A tour for the true beer lovers. During our XL Tour you’ll get an additional tasting session with the guide. We’ll let you enjoy different types of beer and teach you all best practices. The beers are served in the authentic cellars of the brewery. You’ll taste three different beers and discover their rich flavours.”
They continue to brew 100% of their Brugse Zot (a blond and a dubbel) and Straffe Hendrik (tripel and quad) beers at this site in the historic city center (and it’s shipped worldwide – we find Straffe Hendrik tripel and quad pretty easily at home; Brugse Zot is a little harder to find). One really cool thing about this brewery is that in 2016 they opened a 2 mile/3km beer pipeline out to their bottling factory! They did this to minimize the damage from larger trucks coming through the historic city center. Our tour guide was explaining the pipeline to us.
At the end of the tour we went to a tasting room to try Brugse Zot blond, Brugse Zot dubbel, and either Strafe Hendrick tripel or quad (Chris and I both got the quad).
We actually had a really fun tour group so when we had to leave the tour tasting room, we all headed upstairs to the main bar to have a drink together (and our guide joined us!)
Another really fantastic beer is the Tripel Van De Garre – it’s brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge (the same ones who brew Gulden Draak) exclusively for the De Garre pub in Bruges (https://www.visitbruges.be/en/eat-and-sleep/food-bars-cafes/de-garre). It’s a very highly rated – 97 on Beer Advocate – tripel that packs a punch at 11%. It sneaks up on you because it definitely doesn’t taste like an 11%er.
You can’t go to Belgium and not get waffles! We stopped at a cute place called The Waffle Duke for some excellent waffles.
The central square in Bruges is the Markt (Market Square) and is very recognizable. (https://www.visitbruges.be/en/things-to-do/culture-and-heritage/markt-market-square) At Christmas time they also have a Christmas Market in this square – my first visit here was in December 2011 and it was magical!
The Duvelorium (https://duvelorium.be) is a Duvel bar overlooking the square (on the 2nd floor of the building that houses the Historium (it’s to the left of the big white building in these pictures). It is a great place to have a beer and enjoy a fantastic view of the square.
Another main landmark on the square is the belfry. When we came to Bruges in 2024 we climbed the 366 steps to the top of this bell tower. We didn’t do that this visit but it’s definitely worth the climb once! (https://www.visitbruges.be/en/things-to-do/culture-and-heritage/belfort-belfry)
The other big square in Bruges is Burg Square (https://www.visitbruges.be/en/things-to-do/culture-and-heritage/burg-burg-square). This square has the 14th century Gothic town hall as well as the Basilica of the Holy Blood.
Bruges is a must-see if you’re even in Belgium! Stay tuned for our next stop in Brussels …
