We docked in Zeebrugge and did a ships tour into Bruges which was a walking tour, canal boat cruise and some free time. Bruges is an amazingly well preserved medieval city with lots of canals, cobblestone roads and old buildings. It gets about 8 million visitors a year!

There are many convents in Bruges, most of which are no longer used as such. They arose due to the need for women widowed by the Crusades to have safe accommodation. This convent’s lease expire in about 12 years but that is unlikely to be an issue as there are only seven or eight nuns living there now and they are all in their 80s

We arrived in Bruges quite early and there were very few people around, which was a big advantage of an early departure from the ship.

As the time got later the crowds started to grow.

By mid morning there were a lot of people.

Cygnets with mum. The presence of swans in Bruges is from a legend here https://www.greenparkhotelbrugge.com/en/blog/the-legend-of-the-swans-in-bruges-explained#:~:text=Legend%20says%2C%20the%20emperor%20eventually,Bruges%20would%20fall%20to%20ruin.

At the end of the tour we had some free time so found a chocolatier and bought some handmade Bruge/Belgian chocolate which may not make it back to Australia! We then went to a cafe and had an aperol spritz and some Belgian fries with mayonnaise – a Bruges specialty. Oh, and of course we found some Belgian chocolate, but no pics of that!

We overachieved on the fries – we were looking for a small serve to share not two lots of meals for six! We found out later that if we had just ordered the drinks, we would have had a small bowl of fries included – oh well, we know for next time.