Bruges, or Venice of the north

We came back from Belgium last night--it was my first visit to the country so for me the trip had all the excitement of seeing things with virgin eyes (so to speak). We stayed in Brussels, with a day trip to the medieval town of Bruges on Sunday.

I have plenty of pictures from Bruges and only a handful from Brussels, and there is an easy explanation for that--in Brussels I walked around pushing a stroller with Andrej and making sure Boris was close enough to me, so that allowed for few photo snapping possibilities.

So, in this post I'll take you on a walk (and a boat tour) of Bruges.

We were welcomed by a heavy shower and ominous looking skies, which dampened the enthusiasm. Amazingly, it cleared up and we had an afternoon of glorious sunshine afterwords.

Even though they are primarily a tourist attractions, horse carts don't look out of place among these medieval streets and houses.

Paris meets Amsterdam--the mixture of French and Flemish cultures is what makes Belgium so interesting (and unsustainable, some would say).

A little bit like Venice, on a smaller scale (minus the stench, but plus rainfall--plenty of it).

This is Van Eyck square--the famous artist lived here until his death.

This one and the following three pictures were taken from a boat while we toured the canal. It was great to see city from a different perspective, the only downside being that we zoomed passed everything, so there was no time to really pay attention.