Tourist Dodging in Bruges

25/04/2025

After Ypres we decided to tick another city of our list. Bruges is often lauded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, a popular city break destination.

Bruges Aire

The aire in Bruge is on an island in the canal to the south of the river. It may sound idyllic but it’s much more functional than beautiful. The island is shared with the city’s coach parking and a marina. It was our most expensive overnight stay of the whole trip at 30 euros, but it’s location was good. We just had to take a short walk to be in the historic city.

We arrived mid morning with a slight sense of trepidation, by all accounts (and in our experience) the aire has a large turnover but is mostly full by mid afternoon. Getting there shortly after morning departures seemed the best option. The Full signs went up both nights we were there.

The aire entrance is shared with the coach car park and we saw more than one motorhome make the mistake of driving into the wrong entrance. The key is turning right into the aire before the coach car park barrier. You don’t want to be hit with their charges.

On arrival there were plenty of spaces so we had our choice, slotting ourselves into a parking spot and puzzling out the correct electricity terminal to use. The terminals and spaces were numbered but the numbers appeared to bear no relation to each other, and where they did everyone seemed to be randomly connecting anyway.

A visit to Bruges

As expected Bruges was awash with people. Ypres had been busy, but a sombre serious kind of busy. Bruges was more chaotic. When we ventured across the water into the city we encountered coaches full of tourists of all nationalities, families on their Easter holidays, couples enjoying a romantic weekend and groups of friends out to have a good time. A bit of random wandering revealed plenty of attractive buildings but also a lot of cookie cutter shops selling the same tourist tat gifts and mementos. Unsurprisingly chocolate, beer and lace were the items we saw most frequently.

We took refuge in a cafe for some lunch and research. Random wandering wasn’t going to work for us. It was too stressful. We needed a bit of structure to our day. We found ourselves the Visit Bruges app and a walking tour to take us around the city.

Through the walking tour we found ourselves following the canals that sometimes give Bruges the moniker of ‘Venice of the North’. We haven’t been to Venice yet but even so we can tell that it’s no comparison.

The canals have always been very important to Bruges. The river gradually silted up and the city lost it’s direct access to a sea port so canals started to be built as early as the 11th century to enable goods and people to be transported to the centre of the action. They encircle the historic city with gates and steps to allow people to disembark from boats and bridges for foot traffic. For tourists these days they offer a tranquil option to view the city and we saw many boats drifting around the canals while we used shanks’s pony to explore.

A selection of canal views

The canals are also in use for modern day commercial reasons. Not the older canals, but the large Ghent-Bruges canal. Large barges can be seen floating past with cars on deck for use by the skipper when they reach their destination.

Like Ypres there is a Cloth Hall here in testament to Flander’s important cloth trade. We ventured into it’s central area but ascending the tower was 15 euros a pop and you had to have a booked time slot so we gave it a miss this time. Unlike Ypres the Cloth Hall was not rebuilt after the first world war. Bruges was saved destruction because it was occupied by the Germans in both World Wars.

Cloth Hall and belfry in Bruges central square

We stayed for two nights in the Bruges aire. I was working on the second day but we managed a walk along the Bruge-Ghent canal at lunch time where we saw many goslings on the canal, a sign that we had moved out of winter and into spring. In the evening we returned to the city. It was a much more peaceful experience once the coaches of tourists had left and the majority of shops had closed. The bars and restaurants were the focus of evening activity and we were able to enjoy a random walk in a way we hadn’t during the day. We would definitely recommend an evening in the city.

Geese and goslings – spring has definitely arrived