Living In A Storybook: A Look At The City of Bruges, Belgium

By Aimee Mahmoud

After getting our fill of movies like The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, many of us have been left with a yearning to go to sleep and wake up in an astonishing, medieval storybook town like the ones that linger in our most cherished literary fantasies. Like an olive branch from the gods in a mostly-ugly world, the city of Bruges, Belgium charms and stuns some 2 million visitors a year with it's city-wide canals, Gothic cathedrals, and fairy-tale-esque architecture. Dubbed a 'World Heritage Site' by UNESCO and sometimes referred to as "The Venice of the North", the city of Bruges was established in 1128 by the Counts of Flanders with the purpose of becoming a strategic trade port. The city welcomed foreign traders throughout the centuries specializing in wool and lace, at one time being characterized as the "chief commercial city of the World"; 'Till eventually being reinvented in the 19th century as a popular tourist destination for Britain and France's wealthy.

Today, Bruges serves travel enthusiasts as an escape from an industrialized, 21st-century world and into a world that we only get glimpses of in Hollywood blockbusters andDisney theme parks. What's most notable about the cityscape is the fact that most of it's medieval-era architecture is intact - truly a monument to Flemish standards of masonry! Popular attractions include the Church of Our Lady (which was originally constructed in the 13th century), the Basilica of the Holy Blood (which houses a vial of blood said to be that of Jesus), Choco-Story Museum (which details the rise to fame of Belgian chocolate), the Groeningemuseum, (which houses a comprehensive catalogue of six centuries of Dutch and Flemish art), and of course, the delightful city centre that contains numerous shops, cafes, and live entertainment. Lonely Planet reports a constant influx of tourists, especially during the summer, so it's best to travel during weekdays in low-season months like September and March if you want to be able to get the most out of your visit. Also of interest is the distinct absence of automobiles - the city is compact enough to easily get around by foot, bicycle, or moped. 

Bruges is one of Europe's best-preserved medieval cities, and has grown to become rather bourgeois and cosmopolitan despite it's size and population of less than 20,000. True, the enormous amount of tourists clustered together can prove annoying at times (with some locals complaining they are practically living in Disneyland), but you can manage to get some peace and quiet for yourself if you choose to explore the cobbled stone paths outside of the city square and venture into the residential zone. It would seem that we Americans spend so much time as slaves to our work and domestic life that we barely pause to appreciate the engrossing beauty that the rest of the world has to offer. When visiting cities like Bruges, you're not just "on vacation" - you're immersing yourself in a pop-up storybook, in a part of the world that so few take the time to realize existed!