Yes, yes, yes – I survived a visit to Bruges WITHOUT the waffles… I know this is a shame, but I am on a no-sweets challenge during May, hence I had to resist in order to not spoil it. And you know what? Not having had waffles (nor any chocolate, by the way) is a very good reason to come back to this beautiful town quite near to the sea which smells like chocolate (and fries)… I am proud to have resisted.

But what about the bike? It is a very practical thing to have a folding bike which I can load into my car easily. In fact, we could load two folding bikes into my tiny A2 and off we went to Bruges. I had have the city on my bucket list for quite a while now, and this Whitsun weekend, the time had come to tackle a visit.

What can I say – it is really beautiful there, and the best thing is, everybody is very relaxed and pedestrians and cyclists can very nicely cooperate there, not like in other towns where cyclists are aggressive and pedestrians are lecturing traffic rules and all that. Not in Bruges. There you can cycle – softly, slowly of course – amongst the strollers, everybody having their space and own pace. It really, really works well. One thing which helps, of course, is the compact size of a folding bike. but see for yourself:

This is my “birdy” from the German manufacturer Riese & MĂĽller in Darmstadt (50 km from Frankfurt). I just love it. It’s easy to say why: It’s fast, it’s practical, it’s cute 🙂 And it’s a sunny yellow… Reasons enough, huh?

You can spend all day wandering (biking) aimlessly through the tiny streets of Bruges, along the medieval buildings, sometimes not more than 4 meters wide. This is losing time and winning inner peace.

The only thing that is difficult by bike is to do the canals, that would need some more air in the tyres maybe. But other than that, no problem.

Don’t ask me for the names of the places we went. We just went where we thought it looked nice. You can call me an ignorant, not exploring the rich history of the buildings, not asking about the holy spirits of the churches, not going after each and every tale to be told about the people who lived in those tiny little houses. You know what? I left this for my last visit. This time, we let time pass as it passed, just criss-crossing the town back and forth, around this little corner into that little alley, another turn left, then another right, wherever birdy wanted to go. Just so.

Some more of that in another post…