Bruges - General Information

The City

Bruges has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most perfectly preserved medieval towns in Europe and has become the most popular tourist destination in Belgium. The city or town of Bruges consists of lovely intimate winding streets interwoven with narrow canals and bordered with ancient buildings. It has remained virtually unchanged since the 13th century making Bruges a delightful mix of romance and history with its elegant houses, cobbled streets and enchanting canals.

Bruges Canal Scene

Bruges's Canals

Due to its canals Bruges is often called 'The Venice of the North'. In the Middle-Ages, the canals to Bruges had to be regularly adapted and enlarged to allow large trade ships to reach the city.
The canals of Bruges are now exclusively used for tourist boats. There are only five families allowed to organize tourist tours on the canals and each family has 4 boats.

Weather in Bruges

Bruges's Chocolate

Nobody can deny that the people of Bruges have a sweet tooth, so no visitor could miss the many specialised shops with a wide choice of chocolates. If you go to the good shops you will find only high quality home-made chocolate made with the freshest cream.

You will be spoilt for choice with a wide variety of chocolates which include marzipan, petit-fours and truffles. There are also the liqueur chocolates, seafood chocolate, white chocolate and the list goes on. Even if you don't like chocolate you can always marvel at the wonderful and unusual window displays in the chocolate shops of Bruges.