Our Two Nights in Enchanting City of Bruges, Plus Day Trip to Dunkirk

This is the next installment in a series of posts on my recent trip to Europe. See my previous posts: Back from another  family reunion: galloping through Europe and driving my husband crazy , 24 hours in NYC with kids (plus review of Hyatt Place New York Midtown South) and Our JFK-BRU economy flights on Brussels Airlines: ok, not great

You’ve probably heard  the expression “Venice of the North” referring to various cities in the Old World. The term has become overused, and it seems that any town with a few canals wants to claim that title. However, I think the town of Bruges  in Belgium is the closest thing I’ve seen to Venice so far. And I have to give credit to Rick Steves for putting it on my radar.

When  mileage award availability via Avianca  pointed us to Brussels, I recalled an old Rick Steves PBS program highlighting the medieval city of Bruges. It must have been twenty years since I’ve seen it, but I remember thinking it looked like a neat place to explore someday. I had the option of staying two nights in Brussels and visiting Bruges via day trip. That would be the easiest way to do it, since our flight to Krakow was scheduled to leave from Brussels two days later. But I’m a crazy person and like to do things the hard way.

All joking aside, I’ve learned from staying in Venice that some cities are better experienced by staying overnight. Mornings and evenings there tend to be magical since most day trippers are gone. Spoiler alert!  That was the case with Bruges as well. So, we booked a transfer from Brussels airport and after 1.5 hour drive, we arrived to our fairly-tale-like destination.

After getting showers and changing into fresh clothes in our hotel, we  set out to get some Belgian food and to explore the city.

Bruges is a small town and very walkable. The historic center was located only  a few minutes from our hotel.

Naturally, we paid for a canal cruise (15 euros per person):

The cruise lasted about 30 minutes and we got to learn about Bruges history along the way. As  you  can  see,  we  were  fortunate  to  have  great  weather.

It was neat to see so many swans:

There is a chocolate museum and a brewery you can tour, along with other interesting spots. But we didn’t do any of that. A nice thing about  Bruges is that the city itself is basically a living museum. 

That being said, it’s still very much a community where locals go about their normal lives. I had to find a laundromat near our hotel and during my walk saw  Belgian kids enjoying a swim in a canal.

 

One of the things my husband and I love about travel  is trying local delicacies. Naturally, we had to get Belgian waffles for breakfast the next morning at a restaurant called Waffle Bar Brugge

Or in this case, just waffles since we were in Belgium.

Obviously delicious

For dinner we ordered a local special consisting of steamed mussels and several types of meat pots:

Quite good

To me, trying different local foods is as much fun as sightseeing. It’s sightseeing for your stomach!

If you have a few spare days in Europe, I highly recommend adding Bruges for a laid-back cultural experience. If you stay in the city, you will practically have  it to yourself during evenings and mornings. Very special atmosphere once day trippers leave. Although, I still think Venice is better if I absolutely had to pick one. I’ve decided to do a review of our hotel Die Swaene in a separate post and compare it to Crowne Plaza Bruges where my SIL and her husband stayed.

Visiting Dunkirk

Originally, going to Dunkirk (or any other place) from Bruges wasn’t on my agenda. I knew we would be jet lagged and exhausted, so the plan was to relax and just wonder around the city after getting a good night rest. But when I saw on the map that Dunkirk (Dunkerque in French) is located only one hour from Bruges, I had to add it to the list. When else would we get this opportunity again!?

My husband is very interested in WWII history, so this was something I had to do. That’s the reason we stayed in Hiroshima last year and did a  day trip to Yamato museum in Kure. However, I quickly discovered that there is no easy way to get to Dunkirk from Bruges. If we took public transportation, it would require two train changes and take 2.5 hours one way. A private tour would cost $1,500 for six of us, since my SIL and her husband wanted to join.

I couldn’t find a way to rent a minivan, which was the next logical option. I checked the cost of private roundtrip van transfer and the quote on Booking.com was $600. That’s what we ended up doing, and my in-laws contributed $200. So the cost for my family was $400, still a lot of money. But I’m so glad we went. I had to do a lot of research and make a detailed plan for day, so we could maximize our limited time in the area.

The driver picked us up from Crowne Plaza and one hour later we were in Operation Dynamo museum in Dunkirk. We spent about two hours here looking at various exhibits. You start out with a short movie on the Operation Dynamo that had some interesting facts I didn’t know:

The museum is fairly small, but quite fascinating. I have to say, as evil as Nazis were, their uniforms were really sharp. German dude is on the far right. Pun intended.

 

Spitfire plane engine, I think?

If you are going to Dunkirk, I highly recommend first watching the movie by the same name, directed by Christopher Nolan. It was mostly  filmed in the area, to make it as historically accurate as possible.

After we were done with the museum, we walked to the famous Malo-les-Bains beach, where most of the evacuation took place.

It’s a beautiful beach, and it’s hard to believe that such dark events took place here just 80 years ago,  as  seen  on  this  photograph.

To be honest, walking on the sand and  knowing how many young guys died here made me feel quite unsettled. But it was a fascinating journey nonetheless.

The old town of Dunkirk was bombed into oblivion during WWII, so you will mostly see buildings constructed after the war was over.

After having lunch at a local cafe, we made our way to Fort Des Dunes, located a few miles from the beach. This fort was captured by Nazis fairly quickly, and they held it until the official German surrender.

Inside you can see military bunkers and various exhibits, though most descriptions are in French:

There is a small cemetery where allied soldiers are buried.

Overall, the fort was interesting, but if you had to choose one, I would go with Operation Dynamo museum. My husband was fascinated by both, so I’m glad I added it to our do-it-yourself tour of Dunkirk. My BIL also enjoyed everything we saw that day, and it was fun to catch up, as we rarely get to see him.

All the French people we interacted with were very friendly and surprised to see Americans visiting the area. They mostly tend to see British tourists, since Dunkirk evacuation is a huge part of UK history. Most historians  believe that it saved Britain from surrender to Germany and changed the course of the war.

Final thoughts

I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for my husband, I would never plan a trip to Dunkirk. Growing up in Belarus where quarter of population was killed in WWII, it was hard to not be reminded of the wounds of war. Every family lost relatives, including mine. My grandparents didn’t like talking about it, and would rarely discuss starvation and other horrors they went through. My grandfather lost track of several siblings and was never able to find out what happened to them.

Of course, peace in Europe is a fragile sort of thing, and no one  is more aware of this than the Ukrainian guy who served us Belgian waffles in Bruges cafe. Going to Dunkirk  was a poignant reminder to never take your good fortune and loved ones for granted.