Getting out of town

Considering how hard it is to walk in Amsterdam, you can just imagine how intimidating the idea of driving was. We had a car reserved somewhat nearby, but the prospect of dealing with driving back from the rental place to the hotel and then out of town was incredibly unattractive. So I checked with the concierge and we decided that it would be best just to check out and take a taxi to the rental car agency.

This turned out to be an excellent choice. The rental car place turned out to be a significant drive and it was perfectly pleasant picking up our car and heading off to Bruges. We had discussed possibly taking some back roads and making a stop or two along the way, but ultimately Ronnie suggested that we just get to Bruges so we could have more time here. I agreed and ultimately it was a smart move.

The drive was unremarkable. One doesn't necessarily remark on drives anyway, and since nothing bad happened, we'll follow suit here.

Bruges, on the other hand, is remarkable. It's a well-preserved medieval town that's been transformed into a tourist haven. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Italian hill towns, except larger, Siena is a reasonable analog. But this place has way more eye candy that Siena can dream about. Not sure why. Siena is pretty. But this is one of those places where every time you turn a corner you see something beautiful.

Now that I think about it, Verona is maybe a better comparison, though they don't have marble sidewalks here. Just cobblestones. Lots and lots of cobblestones. Someone in the vicinity must have been doing some serious cobbling to come up with all these stones. I understand why it seemed like a good idea back in the day. It's cheap material, I presume, and extremely durable. It's also ridiculously tiring to try to walk on because it's very hard and very uneven, and making both the sidewalk and streets out of the same material makes them indistinguishable and kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing, don't you think? But I suppose back in the 13th century when people only lived 30 or 40 years it wan't a big deal. Not much vehicular traffic back then. But for 60 year-old knees and feet, it's tough going.

The good news is, it's worth it. Our hotel is a couple of blocks from the main square. Okay, I should stop here and note that Ronnie and I are huge fans of the movie, In Bruges. This is a movie that requires a particular sensibility to really enjoy. It's not for everyone, but it's definitely for us. So we will eventually hit all the key sites from the movie. But for today we "settled" for a gorgeous walkaround hitting a number of the main attractions.

Aside from the attractiveness of the place, it's got a wide variety of nice shops and restaurants. Combine that with a small scale the fact that it's very safe, and I can see it being a great family destination. That being said, after a few minutes, we couldn't wait to get out of the crowded part of town and into the quiet, pretty edges.

Fortunately, we're here on a Thursday and not the weekend, because if it's this crowded today, I can only imagine what will be on Saturday. We'll tour around more tomorrow. I'm getting up early to climb the bell tower.