What you doing Katie?: IN BRUGES PART I

Guess where I went this weekend?! For my Christmas present, James booked us a weekend in Bruges, and to say I was excited about it would be the understatement of the century.

In Bruges is in my top 10 favourite films, so naturally I've wanted to visit the town since I first saw it years ago. Apparently I went there for a day when I was very young, and I do vaguely remember throwing up on the SeaCat on our way back across the Channel.

I took my DSLR camera since it's the only camera we really have in use at the moment, but I'm such a novice. I really don't know what I'm doing with it so excuse the mostly low quality of these photos. I am however very pleased with the photo at the top of this post. I don't have a tripod so I had to lean the camera on a stone wall to keep it steady, and hence I didn't have much control over the angle. I could have done with aiming a little higher to get the top of the Belfort in, but even so, I'm pleased with the light and the clarity. I'd even go as far as to say it's probably the best photo I've ever taken, yeah, a big claim I know.

I also took a crap load of photos on my iPhone but I'll save them for another post.

Here goes:

This was the view from our bedroom window of the hotel we stayed in the first night (we stayed at two different hotels...don't ask). This was Martins Relais Hotel and was so lovely. Really old, full of character, in a great location, HUGE room...I really couldn't fault it.

This is right outside our hotel. Remeber the bit in In Bruges where Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are sitting on a bench and Colin Farrell is crying as he talks about what he's done? That bench is there at the end of the canal, under that statue.

The Markt

When In Bruges...

Waffles for Breakfast

A typically gorgeous looking Bruges townhouse

This is the hotel they stayed at in the film. It is just beautiful

The Swans...

As well as chocolate and beer, Bruges is known for lace. This cool map is made of lace, it was so pretty

The famous Belfort. To be fair, Colin Farrell's character does have a point when he tells the obese Americans not to go up there. I am a size 10 and though not fit, I'm not as unfit as I could be. And the walk up this beast was horrible! Both because it is incredibly narrow, and also it is knackering!

Burg. This little square is just next to the Markt, and houses the Basilica, which is where the holy blood is kept. I went up to see it (no photos allowed) and it's weird. It looks like a bit of blood stained brain in a glass scroll. I'm going to have to do my homework on how exactly they know it to be the blood of Christ...

These are a few photos I took from up the Belfort

This is an out of focus photo of the view from our bedroom window in the second hotel of the stay, Hotel Portinari. This hotel wasn't nearly as nice, but was fine I guess. You couldn't swing a cat in the room, and the location wasn't as good at all, but it was clean and cheap.

The Belfort at night is so beautiful

I wandered through an archway down some back street and stumbled across this beautiful courtyard. I guess it belongs to a restaurant but there was nobody in there. It was magical.

Just one of many restaurants we walked past and wanted to go into. We decided we could probably go back for a month, sleep in a different gorgeous hotel every night and eat in a different restaurant every meal and still not get through all the ones we saw and fell in love with. I'm going to do a separate post on some of the hotels we saw, there were just so many gorgeous little places which looked so inviting.

This is back at the canal outside Martin's Relais Hotel. The hotel is the white building there on the right with the flag outside. Bruges really is the fairytale town it's made out to be.

On Sunday we were up and out early and the town was deserted. It was so peaceful in the chilly morning sunshine.

In our 2 days there, I'm guessing we saw about one sixth of what the place has to offer. I would happily go back for a week and still not run out of places to wander...