Bruges brewery ‘De halve maan’ (The half moon) won another 3 medals for their beers. At the European Beer Star awards in Berlin, ‘De halve maan’ won a gold medal for ‘Straffe Hendrik‘ in the category ‘Belgian Style Tripel’, another gold medal for ‘Brugse Zot double brown‘ in the category ‘Belgian Style Dubbel’ and a bronze medal for ‘Brugse Zot Blond‘ in the category ‘Belgian Style Ale’.

There participated 836 beers from 36 countries in 41 categorie.

Now that the summer is gone, Bruges becomes an even more romantic, idyllic and mysterious place to visit. More and more tourists appreciate Bruges during the cooler months. Here a list of activities I can recommend you on your winterisch visit to Bruges.

• Brrr…ugge - evocatives wintry evenings: each Monday and Wednesday between the 9th of November and the 16th of December. free Intimate concerts and exciting spectacles @ Gruuthuse/Arentshof
• Snow and ice sculpture festival: spectacular snow and ice village near the railway-station between the 20th of November and the 10th of January. More info: icesculpture Bruges
• (Ant)ARCTIC matters: unique art project travelling around the world in 12 containers, showing the beauty of the poles and creating awareness for today’s ecological consequences of climate change. Bruges is the first city to welcome this special exhibiton on his European tour. (Ant)ARCTIC matters Bruges is open between the 20th of November and the 3rd of January@Koning Albertpark (between railway station and t Zand).
• Christmas Markets: New this year is a third xmas market at the Walplein. The other two are located on the Market Square and the Simon Stevin Square. On the Market Square there’s an icerink. The markets are open between the 20th of November and the 3th of January.
• The invention of Bruges: city of Delacenserie. This unique exhibition in the Bruggemuseum-Gruuthuse offers an elucidation for this 19th century patina of the city for the very first time. Discover the true face of Bruges and its brilliant inventor Louis Delacenserie and view the picturesque city from a different angle. Open between the 10th of September and the 25th of April.

More activities can be found on this website: winterinbrugge.be

In May 2010, Low-budget hotelgroup Etap, part of the Accor group, opens the first low-budget hotel in Bruges. The hotel, located next to the Bruges railway station, will have 184 rooms (5 rooms for handicapped people, 118 double rooms and 61 tripple rooms). Etap hotel Bruges will be the biggest hotel of Bruges. The hotel will be part of a huge development-project containing stores like Saturn (electronics, opening 2nd of December),  Carrefour, KBC and Subway.

update: Etap Brugge Centrum Station opens May 17th

The procession of the Holy Blood, a large religous procession organised every year on Ascension Day in Bruges, is part of UNESCO World Heritage List since yesterday. The city of Bruges was already protected by UNESCO a couple of years ago, now this event is added to the list of ‘Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. This is how the procession is described on the UNESCO-website:

Each spring, 30,000 to 45,000 spectators gather in the heart of the Belgian city of Bruges to watch the Procession of the Holy Blood on Ascension Day, forty days after Easter. The colourful pageant dates back to the thirteenth century, when a citizen of Bruges is said to have brought the Relic of the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ back from the Second Crusade. Led by the thirty city notables of the Brotherhood of the Holy Blood and accompanied by brass bands, more than 1,700 citizens on foot, in carts or on horseback perform stories from the Old Testament, the life of Jesus and the history of Bruges. Then, various civic groups venerate the relic and the procession concludes with a prayer ceremony, performed in several languages to accommodate the international audience. For centuries, the ceremony has played an important role in expressing the identity of Bruges’s inhabitants and in facilitating encounters with people from outside the city. Participants are a representative cross-section of ages, families and communities. Some inhabitants have participated for forty or fifty years, and émigrés often return for ‘Bruges’s Finest Day’. The Procession is a vibrant example of how a collective ceremony can unite a city through ritual enactment of its history and beliefs.

This week, ZDF started filming the first scenes of the movie ‘Traum aus Schokolade’ at the ‘Brugs Vrije’, which is located in het left corner of the ‘Burg’. In the fim, ‘Brugs vrije’ will be a fictitious hotel with the name ‘Belle Etoile’ (beautiful star). In real life, this building is the administrative center of the city of Bruges.

update: ZDF will broadcast the movie on Sunday 21/11/2010