Bruges, Frame by Frame

Drop your bags at your hotel and get your bearings. Bruges is compact enough to walk almost everywhere, so lace up comfortable shoes before stepping out.

Start at the tower that defines the city's skyline. The Belfry rises 83 metres above the Markt, and the 366-step climb is rewarded with a panorama that makes the whole medieval grid legible at once. The carillon — 47 bells — has been ringing over these rooftops for centuries.

A short walk from the Belfry, Cambrinus is the right place to settle into Bruges at lunch — Belgian classics, a serious beer list, and the kind of interior that feels as though it predates the menu by several decades.

The Gothic City Hall on the Burg square is one of the oldest in the Low Countries, its façade busy with carved figures and its interior sheltering a vaulted council chamber painted in vivid narrative scenes. The Burg itself — quieter and more intimate than the Markt — deserves a slow look around.

A few minutes south of the Burg, the Groeninge holds one of the finest collections of Flemish Primitive painting in existence. Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling are both represented here — works painted in this very city, in some cases in view of streets you have already walked today.

Tuck down the narrow alley off Breidelstraat and find De Garre — a bar that takes Belgian beer seriously enough to have its own house tripel, poured at an unhurried pace. It is exactly the kind of place a city like Bruges keeps half-hidden.

On Hooistraat, this small evening restaurant cooks over a wood fire — steak, fish and vegetables grilled to order, with fried camembert also on the card. The kitchen runs Monday to Friday, so time your visit accordingly. It is the kind of dinner that smells of smoke and tastes of intention.

One of Europe's oldest surviving hospital buildings, Sint-Janshospitaal has been repurposed as a museum housing an extraordinary set of Memling altarpieces alongside medieval medical instruments and pharmacy archives. The building itself — austere, vast, purposeful — is as compelling as anything inside it.

Directly adjacent to Sint-Janshospitaal stands the Church of Our Lady, whose brick tower is the tallest in Belgium. Inside, Michelangelo's marble Madonna and Child — one of the few works by the artist to leave Italy during his lifetime — sits in a side chapel with quiet authority.

A Bruges institution for mussels and North Sea fish, Breydel De Coninc sits on the street between the Markt and the Burg. The formula is unfussy and the seafood is the point — a good midday reset before the afternoon's walking.

The Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde is a walled enclave of whitewashed houses arranged around a central courtyard. Founded in 1245 and now a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is one of the best-preserved beguinages in Flanders. Walk the perimeter of the adjacent Minnewater lake before heading back into the centre.

The only functioning family brewery left in the historic centre, De Halve Maan has been producing Bruges Zot and Straffe Hendrik here since 1856. The guided tour takes you through the working brewery and up onto a rooftop terrace with views across the canal roofscape.

Return to the Markt as the afternoon light shifts. The Provincial Court, the guild houses along the edges, the statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninc in the centre — the square reads differently at different times of day. No agenda, just the square.

A reference point for Belgian beer culture, 't Brugs Beertje stocks hundreds of bottles alongside a rotating draught selection. The atmosphere is warm, the staff know the beer list in depth, and an early evening here is a perfectly defensible way to spend the last light of a Bruges afternoon.

A fitting close to two days in Bruges — De Koetse serves traditional Belgian and regional Flemish cooking in a setting that feels unhurried and grounded. A proper final dinner before the journey home.