Tours in Bruges

Walk out of the railway station and head for the water. Within a few minutes the traffic thins, the cobbles start, and you are in a town that was made for walking slowly. Most people arrive with a list. The better plan is to put the list down for an hour and follow a canal until a bridge makes you stop.

The centre is tight and easy to cover. The Markt and its belfry pull everyone in, and the Burg square sits just next to it, with the basilica tucked into a corner. Come back to both early or late, when the tour groups have gone and the stone looks different. The Begijnhof is quiet in a way the main squares never are. The Church of Our Lady, with its tall brick tower, shows up over rooftops wherever you wander. Take a boat on the canals once, if only to see the backs of the houses.

Then leave the centre. The ring of green around the old town is where locals actually go, with water on one side and windmills on the other, and the old city gates still standing along the line. Kruispoort is one of them, and it is worth stopping at. Beyond the edge, a straight canal runs out through flat fields and polders towards Damme, a small town with a square made for sitting. You can climb its tower if it is open, wander its quiet streets, and have a beer before the ride back. Cycling is the right way to do it, because the landscape rewards a slow pace.

Back in Bruges, eat something simple. Frites from a stand, a waterzooi if the weather turns, and a local beer in a café with low light. If there is a building here you want to see inside, a museum, a church or a hidden courtyard, ask. A local guide can build a day around it.