Together with my colleague of fietsroute.org (Belgian Cyclist-site), I created an ‘In Bruges’-walk. It’s a 6 km (3,7 mile) long walk in the historic centre of Bruges along the main filmlocations used in the movie ‘In Bruges’.
Click the links to view a 3D-map of the movie locations:
The first pub Ken and Ray visited in Bruges. It’s called ‘Zwarte Huis’ (Black house). ‘Zwarte huis’ is the pub of the former ‘cinema liberty’ and ‘English Theatre of Bruges’. It was built in 1482 and you can still see some valuable interior details such as the wonderful woodsculpture above the fireplace. In july and August 2008, there are daily showings of ‘In Bruges’.
The restaurant in Bruges were Cloé and Ray had their romantic date. It’s called ‘Cafédraal’
In June, The German television ZDF starts shooting a new movie that takes place in Bruges. The title of the movie is ‘Mein liebe ist bei dir, ein Herz aus Schokolade’ (My love is with you, a heart of chocolate). It ’s a story about 2 romances which cross each other and off course about chocolate (where Bruges is known for). One of the actors is Sky Du Mont, a famous German actor known for his role in ‘Tatort’.
According to the members of Tripadvsisor.com, Bruges is worth place 20 in the ‘Top100 destinations Worldwide’. In the ‘Top25 Europe’, Bruges even scores better with a 7th place!
You can find the top100 here: Tripadvisor Awards
Thanks to these 2 beautiful websites, you can visit Bruges virtually… I would recommend you to visit the city of Bruges in real life, but these sites are a nice alternative for those people who are not able to do it.
There’s a book available with the script of the movie. So untill the release of ‘In Bruges’ in your country or the release of the DVD (25th of July), you can enjoy the story (again)…
Click the links to view a 3D-map of the movie locations:
Scene on bench shot in front of the statue of ‘Jan Van Eyck’ on the ‘Van Eyck-plein‘ (Van Eyck-square). Jan Van Eyck was one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century. You can visit the ‘Groeningemuseum’ in Bruges to admire some of his paintings.
For those people who aren’t familiar with the city of Bruges, here are some pictures from ‘In Bruges’ and a link to maps.live.com where you can see where it’s shot:
For the second year in a row, the Bruges beer ‘Brugse Zot‘ wins the gold medal on the ‘World Beer Cup‘ in the category ‘Belgian- and French-Style Ale’. The prestigious World Beer Cup awards were presented Saturday, April 19 at the close of the annual Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego (California) to a crowd of 1500 excited brewers and their colleagues.
The Germans made a very beautiful website for their release of ‘In bruges’. They gave it another title: ‘Bruegge sehen… und sterben?’ Translated: ‘Seeing Bruges… and die?
10 reasons why you really should visit Bruges at least once in your life:
It is the most well preserved medieval city in Belgium
If you like good food, then Bruges is the place to be. There are a lot of excellent restaurants and it even got one with 3 Michelin-stars (De Karmeliet)
If you like good food, then you probably like a good drink too. We can recommend you the local beer ‘Brugse Zot’. It already won a lot of prices. You can visit the brewery (De Halve maan) and taste the beer afterwards in the bar.
If you like a good drink, then you certainly need to visit the oldest bar in town (café Vlissinghe). It exists since the 16th century. Really a must-see!
If you like (older) art, you can visit the ‘Groeningemuseum‘. It has a worldfamous collection of the Flemish Primitives, with masterpieces by Jan Van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling and Gerard David. Here you can find some examples of the collection.
For a beautiful panoramic view of the city of Bruges, you need to climb the 366 steps of the Belfry. It has an impressive clock mechanism and a carillon with 47 bells. The Belfry has an important role in the movie ‘In Bruges’.
You can make a beautiful walk around the city and visit one of the 4 remaining medieval gates (Ezelpoort, Smedepoort, Gentpoort and Kruispoort)
Bruges has a lot of chocolate shops. Take a walk on ‘The Chocolate Walk’ – A chocolate trail that takes in all the finest chocolate shops of Bruges.
Probably the most romantic place in Bruges is the ‘lake of love‘ (’Minnewater’ in Dutch). It’s the former harbor of Bruges and now a peaceful and very romantic place.
‘The church of our lady‘ is the tallest structure in the city. It’s also the second tallest brickwork builing in the whole world (122,3m). The altarpiece of the large chapel in the southern aisle enshrines the most celebrated art treasure of the church—a white marble sculpture of the Madonna and Child created by Michelangelo around 1504.
Known as ‘The Venice of the North’, Bruges is one of the most preserved mediavel cities all over the world. Here are some pictures that show you the beauty of it:
