Study visit: Brugge
I asked my friend Otto Cardell in Gym 2 if he could help me summarize their study visit to Brugge.
All of Gym 2 went to Brügge for a study visit on the 9th of September. I had not heard much of Brügge before, the only thing I knew was that they have a pretty good football team (Club Brügge). But as it appeared, Brügge was really a noteworthy town.
Our trip begun with a 1.5 hour long bus trip which was kind of fun since the bus driver played loud music the entire trip. When we arrived at our destination and got off the bus we were given a snack bag each as well as 10 euro for lunch which was very generous. While we ate our snack we started our walk by walking through a small community that looked almost like a town in medieval China. We crossed several small bridges and passed high medieval houses that almost looked like buddhistic buldings.
When we finally arrived in the central quarters of Brügge it felt as if you were pulled back 500 years in time. All of the buildings were low with small decorations. Here and there were signs hanging that said things like ”Carpenter” or ”Bakery”. Pretty much all around the inner city there were canals flowing between houses and it really made you understand why Brügge is compared to Venice.
The first thing we went to see was the enormous church. We got to know before hand that we were going to ascend 366 steps of stairs to reach the top. I can assure you that it was a lot more than it sounds! After about 250 steep steps one started using one’s hands to be able to climb. When we reached the top we were met by a mighty view. With the church bells just a meter over our heads you could look out over the thousands of densely built houses that practically covered all ground space, this made it look like a huge puzzle with rooftops in different colours. Before we went down the 366 steps the church bells began ringing, which made it even more majestic.
After this it was time for lunch. I spent my 10€ at Subway with some other boys in my class. This might not have been the most charming place where one could take the opportunity to eat when in Brügge but never the less it tasted good.
Before we went to eat lunch we were divided into groups and each group got a quiz paper about Brügge. The task was to, during the lunch break, walk around in Brügge and try to find the answers to questions like ”What does french fries cost at Grote Markt” and ”Who made the famous statue in ”Our Lady’s Church?”. The group with the most correct answers would win a price and my competitive side took over, obviously I wanted to win. I can admit to using google at a point. We were far away from winning in the end so it didn’t really matter.
Our study visit was ended by a sightseeing trip on a boat through the inner quarters of Brügge. It didn’t really matter that you couldn’t understand much of the Guide’s bad English since you could reach over and feel the water, pretending to be in Venice. Around 5 o’clock we took the bus back to Waterloo with loud music in our ears.
As you probably understood the study visit to Brügge was very successful and I really hope that we will go on similar trips in the future!
