First European train journey to Bruges

Have you ever heard of Bruges? May be not! How would you pronounce it? Give it a shot. I was asking everyone in Brussels, where is Bruges(बृगेस)? And everyone gave me a blank face "Hain! 😆", as the actual pronunciation is "Bruche(ब्रूस)".

During my anxious wait  for my first train journey in Europe I met this little cute girl with a teddy bear in her lap, looking for something while eating some sweet dish. I couldn't resist taking picture of her, as I love kids very much. Moreover "Isn't she adorable".

Cute European kid at Brussels Midi station

First boarding in a European Train

After doing some photography at platform, it was 10:21 am and I boarded the train to Gent-Sint-Pieters as there were no direct trains to Bruges. Train cabin gave the feeling of a luxury aircraft, very comfortable seat and leg room, LED lights and neat and clean washrooms. There is no seat reservation concept in European trains. Sit wherever you want, you can get a seat easily as trains are not much crowded.

Three Japanese folks sat next to me. After giving a puzzled look to each others for sometime, I broke the ice and started the conversation with "Are you here as a tourist or working or residing here?". One of them answered "Yes tourist". I was little surprised as they were quite good at English. We talked for few more minutes about places they had already visited and were planning to visit in Europe.
 

First European train journey

An easy-going ticket collector

The man you see on the right in the above pic working on a laptop, showed his pass to ticket collector which he declared expired. That man and ticket collector both were pretty cool and casual with it. He paid the ticket amount and fine with his credit card, and that's it. I was impressed by the manner in which both handled the incident.

It was around half an hour journey to Gent-Sint-pieters where I changed another train for Bruges. And amazing views through the window continuously electrifying me. 

A view of beautiful buildings from train

I was totally immersed in the beauty of amazing landscapes that I didn't realize how and when I reached station Bruges.

The Station Brugges

At the Brugges station I got free wifi. So I quickly booked return ticket to Brussels. From Brussels, I had a bus in the evening to Netherlands' capital Amsterdam.

You would be having little curiosity from the beginning of this post that how on the earth I got to know about Bruges. I  forgot to mention about it in my last post. Actually I found about it from one of my college mate Varsha. She recommended me that if I were in Belgium, I shouldn't miss a chance to visit Bruges.

I was not knowing anything about where to go, what to do in Bruges. I could recollect one thing about one of her fb post "When in Belgium eat waffle". That's all what I knew. When I came out of the station(while having a veg cheese sandwich 😃), I asked a very enthusiastic backpacker girl from USA, who was waiting for a bus there, "What is your plan in Bruges today?" And then came a very helpful answer"I don't know" 😦. You can find so many wanderers like this anytime, anywhere in Europe.

After taking few steps, I saw a group of tourists moving towards a narrow road just opposite to the railway station. I started following them in the hope of reaching some attractive place. 

Picture credits: An unknown traveler girl :)

Entering the cobbled streets

Medieval buildings in Bruges

I could take these few images at the very entrance of this beautiful town.

The cobbled street, medieval buildings and canals make Bruges a very unique place. For its medieval architecture, it has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2000.

When in Belgium eat waffle

After walking for a mile, few restaurants came my way. The thought of having waffle was mouth watering. I stopped by a restaurant, there were around 7-8 types of waffles. I ordered strawberry one. It was delicious but not worth it's cost (7-8 euros).

Strawberry Waffle

It was a beautiful sunny day and pleasant weather, awesome environment suitable for a long walk. I started exploring the town by feet. On my left boat rides were going on in a canal and on the right, beautiful hut shaped buildings gave an amazing and unforgettable experience. I felt delighted after recognizing it to be the place where Anushka Sharma(a bollywood actress) rode bicycle in a very famous bollywood movie PK.

Boat tour in Bruges

I joined a long queue for a boat tour.  I did a lot of chit-chat with a Mumbai based family waiting for the same boat ride. I was delighted to get latest updates of India vs Pakistan match of champions trophy from them. After one and a half hours I got a ticket for 8 euros and boarded a boat. 

Spending time with photography while in queue

Famous boat tour in Bruges

This boat tour is a guided tour in which captain of the boat elaborates all the places coming around the journey. And, almost entire town is covered in the tour.

I remember only one of the major hops of the tour, and that is Church of Our Lady. During my tour I was totally lost in mesmerizing architecture of the town, and hence couldn't pay much attention to the captain's words.

Tour ended in around 45 minutes. That was all in Bruges. Before bidding adieu to the Bruges I purchased 2 kg of multi-variety Belgian chocolates.

I reached Brussels at around 5 o'clock in the evening and was waiting at Brussels Midi station for my flixbus with immense excitement for I had heard many cool stories about this place.

Dear readers let's meet in Amsterdam😈 in the next post.

For more breathtaking pics from my Eurotrip click here.