IT’S been dubbed the Venice of the North, with its picturesque canals, historic churches, squares and cobbled streets – and yet it’s only an hour’s drive from York ...
OK, plus an overnight ‘minicruise’ ferry crossing from Hull to Zeebrugge and then a half-hour’s coach journey into the city.
But Bruges still has to be one of the most accessible historic cities on the Continent for people from York. No motorway jams, airport queues or security searches; you just take a spin down the A1079 to P&O’s dock on the outskirts of Hull, park your car on the dockside, swiftly walk on board and go straight to your en suite cabin to dump your case.
You can dine in the ferry’s restaurant or cafe, watch a film or sit back in the bar and listen to the ship’s musicians and entertainers, but when I travelled on the ferry with my wife, we preferred just to relax and read in our comfortable bunk beds, soothed by the distant thrum of the engines.
In the morning, after our slow and steady 14-hour journey, we left our luggage in the cabin and disembarked to board a coach to travel into Bruges.
The city was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 and what a delight it was on that sunny Sunday morning, before most of the crowds had arrived.
We spent our first hour just strolling alongside the horse-drawn carriages through the streets and squares, with their brick church towers soaring as high as 122 metres into the sky. Every so often, a carillon comprising 48 bells rang out from a 13th century belfry.
Then it was time for a visit to the Groeningemuseum, which houses Bruges’ premier art collection of 15th-century Flemish Primitives such as Jan van Eyck. Next, we popped into the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, to see the Madonna and Child, a white marble sculpture by Michelangelo, believed to be his only sculpture to have left Italy within his lifetime.
Hungry, we went to buy some chips to eat in one of the city’s parklands – they cook chips very well here, and there’s even a Frietmuseum in Bruges devoted to the history of the potato fry.
After lunch, we were tired and the streets were becoming increasingly crowded, and we decided it was time to take a trip along those canals.
The only problem was that some of the crowds had had the same idea and we had to stand in a queue for a good half hour before we could finally sit down for a rest and a scenic tour of the city. But it proved well worth the wait, as you really see Bruges at its best when you’re gliding through the tranquil water.
By late afternoon, we were glad to take the coach back to the ferry for our overnight crossing back to Hull, after a marvellous day out.
Travel facts: Bruges minicruises are available with P & O Ferries from Hull from £69 per person. For more information, call 0800 130 0030 or go to www.poferries.com.
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