Our morning mostly consisted of browsing through some more shops, something I considered a luxury since everything short of restaurants are closed on Sundays in Austria. We made some final chocolate purchases (as if we hadn't bought enough already), also discovering Galler Chocolatier west off of the Market Square, which is a Belgian Royal Warrant Holder. Apparently that's quite the complement in these parts, and I could taste why. I consider Belgian chocolates to be a step above the rest anyway, but this was quite possibly the best Belgian chocolate I'd ever tasted. This was also reflected in the prices.
Not Galler Chocolatier, but still a delicious chocolate shop
I also treated myself to a little something in one of the lace shops we passed at the corner of Wollestraat and Rozenhoedkaai. Our last stop was in the Stadhuis, the town hall turned town history museum.
Although I'd passed by the far from subtle Gothic facade plenty of times considering its proximity to the Market Square, I don't think it had occurred to me to actually go inside. I have Lauren to thank for the idea, and it was well worth spending our last hour there. I knew I brought her along for a reason!
Before even getting inside the building, we stopped to admire and read a bit about the facade from 1375. Although some of it was destroyed by the French army a century before, most remained intact with the only notable additions being the effigies to the counts and countesses of Flanders, installed in the 1960s.
Once inside, there's a spacious foyer filled with lifesize paintings of notable figures through the ages which you can learn about with an audio guide. Then upstairs to the parliamentary chamber built around the turn of the 15th century. The vaulted ceiling alone is enough reason to go, though the room also houses a series of paintings from 1895 portraying a significant event in the history of Brugge.
Figuring that was as good of a note to end on as any, we said our goodbyes to one of my favorite little European towns and returned to the train station more significantly more laden down with bags than when we arrived.
Once back in Brussels we really didn't have much time to spare, so I took Lauren around to some of the main sights, namely the Grand Place. We tried to get lunch at a place recommended by my book, but alas it was closed so we ended up back at Arcadi, the quiche place I had eaten at on Friday. We saw a few more sights, then had to dash to catch our train, which we did easily. We were going to make it right on time for our flight until the train, specifically the airport train, announced at the last stop in Brussels that it wouldn't be going all the way to the airport, and to get off and wait for the next train. Thus we wasted thirty minutes, causing us to literally have to sprint through the airport to catch our flights. I just made mine. Lauren, whose flight was supposed to depart five minutes prior to mine, did not. Of course, I didn't know this until I got back to Vienna that night, but poor Lauren was at least able to get on another flight and spend the night with a friend in the town she landed in in France before catching the 5:00am train to get to work on time the next morning. That aside, though (well, that's easy enough for me to say, I wasn't the one who had to miss my flight), and ignoring the brevity of the trip, I thought it was a great success and I was thrilled to be back in Brugge again, introducing a friend to its charms.
Until next time, dear Brugge!
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