In Bruges: It's like a Dream

It's like a dream. Good luck cutting the tourists out of your pictures.

The film, In Bruges, featured two primary characters with differing opinions of the city. 

Colin Ferrell just wanted to be back in Dublin while Ralph Fiennes reminisced about how magical the city was. Like a dream! 

I read somewhere these characters were based on the writer's first and second days in the city. And I knew exactly what he was talking about. 

How can it not be charming? There is a dog that has spent most of its life in this window.

Window dog is Windog.

The first day you spend in Bruges, you can walk around and see all the tourist stuff. Everything is charming. You can probably find a nice charming tour to take you around the city, and give you a rosy view. I enjoyed the Can You Handle It!? tour, which points out film locatoins and has a roster of snarky cynical sailor-cursing guides that will show you around the nice charming city.

The city is undeniably beautiful, and features unnecessary quantities of decoration everywhere all the time.

IT'S LIKE A DREAM.

And everywhere you look you can see quaint old stonework. And canals, of course, that make the place reminiscent of Amsterdam, minus the heavy drug use.

A FEUDAL DREAM!

There is a central square which you should not, and, in fact, cannot miss, because it is the center of everything ever. Between the cute buildings and carriages, there is nothing to remind you that you are in the modern era.

Except for photobombing tour buses.

There is a very tall, very impressive bell-tower in the square. It's very hard to miss, and you may remember from the film, In Bruges. If you haven't seen the movie, I said nothing. Nothing!

Yeah. THAT belltower.

It's worth a climb, you can see a top view of the quaint city. There are cathedrals and stuff.

Cathedrals. And stuff.

The city makes a beautiful place to walk around for a day. The risk is strong, for any city that size, that if you stay much longer than a day you are going to get restless fast. If you're there on a Sunday, you will find stores closed at unexpected times, and a choice of maybe two restaurants.

There is a lot to like about a day in Bruges. And if you are coming from Amsterdam, especially, the city will feel like a dream. Hopefully with better dream sequences than that movie within a movie.