It’s no secret that I love Belgium as a gastronomical destination, but it has other charms, as well. (No surprise, though, right?) One of our favorite activities in Belgium, besides eating and drinking, was spending a day biking in Bruges and in the surrounding area.
During our short visit to the country of Belgium, we spent most of our time in the completely adorable, preserved medieval town of Bruges. We entertained ourselves there well, but on our last day, we decided to get away from the more touristy part of the city. We rented bikes right off the Markt Square and followed local directions to the nearby town of Damme, said to be a smaller, less crowded Bruges.
While we didn’t find Damme to be that much quieter, as there was some sort of festival the day we visited, the bike ride in the countryside was gorgeous and idyllic. Our favorite part, of course, was the working windmill we stumbled across, right across the canal (built by Napoleon!) from Damme. We wandered in to explore and watch the flour-making process ourselves, which E was especially excited about. I was amused that the miller lazily waved us up the tiny, crickety, slippery stairs, obviously used to tourists coming in and out. Be careful–everything is covered in flour and there is very little traction! We didn’t go up all the steps as the floors got smaller and closer to the machinery, but we went up three floors to explore as much as we could.
We biked through town and the countryside to get to the town and the windmill, but I loved the ride back, along an easy forested path and close to the canal. It’s a perfect piece of nature and farmland in the middle of Europe.
It took us about half a day to bike out to Damme, and went spent the rest of the day biking around the cobblestone streets of town. Biking is a great way to get around Bruges, and to explore further out, as well.
Rick Steves has the best directions to Damme, outside of locals! We used both his book and the directions of our innkeeper.
{the little town of Damme / proudly flying the flags / the adorable, red-tipped windmill / the canal near Damme / down the canal / this boat looked really fun–you can take tours from Bruges to Damme!–but we were much faster on our bikes 🙂 / the working windmill / romantic / E is a natural on a bike (unlike someone else I know…cough) / biking away from the windmill / a cute country house on our way back to Bruges / biking along the streets of Bruges…I was biking too, which made a clear image a little more difficult!}
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