Bruges grew rich in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as a cloth and trading port, and the belfry on its market square is the proudest sign of that wealth. Rising about eighty-three metres above the Markt, with an octagonal upper stage, few towers in Belgium are better known. The Hallen, the old market halls at its base, once held the town's cloth trade, and the belfry stored the town's charters and its bells, so that merchants and citizens could be called together and warned of fire or attack. It is also a part of the group of belfries of Belgium and France on the World Heritage list.
The climb up is 366 steps, steep and narrow, with a view at the top over the red roofs, canals and green fields toward the sea. The carillon has forty-seven bells, played by the town's carillonneur on a keyboard of wooden levers, and concerts are given several times a week in summer. On the Markt below, horse-drawn carriages pass, and on the east side the gabled guild houses stand like a row of stage sets. The town was a centre of Flemish painting, with Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling both working here.
Bruges is a place to arrive by bike or on foot, not by motorbike. The historic centre is a maze of cobbled streets, canals and one-way systems, with restrictions on vehicles and a large pedestrian zone around the Markt. Park outside the ring and walk in, or use one of the car parks near the station. Cobbles are slippery in rain and tourists are everywhere, so a motorbike in the centre is more bother than fun. The countryside to the east and the coast to the north are flat and pleasant, with tidy villages and tree-lined roads.
Bruges has about one hundred and seventeen thousand people, so fuel and food are easy outside the centre. Local fare means mussels and chips, waterzooi stew, and Belgian beer, with chocolate shops on every corner. Go at dawn or late in the evening to see the square at its quietest.