Bruges Canal Walk: The Venice of the North

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1. 1. Dijver

   Welcome to the Dijver. 🎨 This is the postcard stretch of canal, and it earns it. The Groeningemuseum and the Gruuthusemuseum both open off it, so it is a natural place to break a walk. A weekend antiques and flea market sets up along the quay from spring to autumn. The view back towards the belfry from the bridge is the one everybody photographs.

2. 2. Rosary Quay (Rozenhoedkaai)

   Rosary Quay (Rozenhoedkaai)

3. 3. Canalview Hotel Ter Reien

   🏨 A hotel on the Reien, the canals that give Bruges its shape. This is one of the quieter stretches — mostly residents, a few boats — and a good place to begin or end a walk along the water. From here the centre is five minutes on foot in one direction and the ramparts twenty in the other.

4. 4. Lake of Love (Minnewater)

   The Minnewater, the Lake of Love. 🦢 It was the city's inner harbour once, where barges from Ghent tied up; the name has been read as both 'love' and, more prosaically, 'common water'. Swans have been kept here since the fifteenth century, by an obligation the city was said to have been given as a punishment. It is a short walk from the beguinage and a good place to end one.

5. 5. Bonifacius Bridge (Bonifaciusbrug)

   Bonifacius Bridge (Bonifaciusbrug)

6. 6. Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde (Begijnhof "Ten Wijngaerde")

   Step into the beguinage. 🕊️ A walled courtyard of white houses around a lawn, and the quietest place in the city. Founded in 1245, it housed beguines — women who lived religiously in community without permanent vows. Benedictine nuns live here now, and silence is asked for rather than suggested. The daffodils in early spring are the reason many people come.

7. 7. The Old Chocolate House

   The Old Chocolate House

8. 8. Jan van Eyckplein

   ⚓ Jan van Eyckplein was the harbour of medieval Bruges, when ships came right into the city and this was where they tied up. The Poortersloge and the old customs house still stand around it. Van Eyck himself worked here, and the statue in the middle is his. It is one of the few central squares that is usually empty.

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