The Markt

The Markt used to be a commercial centre back in Medieval time. Now, it's a square full with tourists! It's not a bad thing, it's lively. It's nice to spend some time there, enjoying the bell that struck every 15 mins from Belfry, and all the horses at the square. If you want to, you can always approach them, to have a horse ride around the city. It's a nice place to sit there and observe people too. I like to do this and make guesses where the tourists come from.

There are three very recognisable structures in The Markt, the Belfry, the Provincial Court & the statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck. I do not know who are they, but you won't miss the Markt if you recognise these few structures.

The Provincial Court

On our first day it's cloudy so I turned the picture into black and white

The Provincial Court at night

The next day when the weather is all lovely and sunny

Roof of provincial court

Roof of the provincial court

The Statue

On a good day, the square flooded with tourists

The statue

The Belfry

The Belfry

The Belfry and the provincial court

We did visit the Belfry, so there will be post on Belfry in more details.

When I was doing homework for Bruges, a lot of posts warned tourists not to dine at the restaurants surrounded the Markt. When I checked in to Hotel Ter Brughe, the lady at the counter warned us not to dine there as well. According to them, the restaurants are overly charged with food that is not as good. So I'm just doing my due diligence to warn you the same thing again here :)

You can always visit Bruges with a day tour from Brussels or Paris. However, if you have enough time, it's always nice to stay at least one night here. To enjoy the small little town to the fullest. One good thing about staying here is, the day tour tourists will swamp out of the town by evening, leave this place to its peace and quiet. (Tips: Bruges is very accessible. You can come from Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Paris etc. Intercity train between Bruges and Brussels cost 13.80Euro per person, and it takes approximately 1 hour.)

I didn't get to do a lot in Bruges, but I surely like this place :)