Last week I published the first part of this post showing you the beauty of Bruges in Summer. Today I am going to show you a bit more of the region of Bruges, including the very romantic AirBnB accommodation we stayed at, and our trip to the beach!

While visiting the city of Bruges we actually spent two nights in a little village called Lissewege. This is still technically within the municipality of Bruges and was a charming and quiet little spot to base ourselves while we explored Bruges and Ypres. The village is about 15 minutes drive from the centre of Bruges and we chose to stay there partly as it was more affordable than in the centre of Bruges, partly because it offered free parking across the street, and partly because I just really wanted to stay there!

Our AirBnB accommodation was a private room in “Ulysses” BnB, which is a renovated house originally built in 1922. I mostly wanted to stay there for our trip to Bruges because it had a very lovely looking bed with curtains, and a massive two-person jacuzzi in the room!

We had some difficulties on arrival, the keycode to open the keyholder so we could get into the building didn’t seem to want to work at all. I had to ring the owner to try and sort it out and she was adamant that the code would work. But it didn’t. Eventually someone in the building came and let us in so that we didn’t have to wait on the steps until 1am (when the owner would have finished work). The heat was a bit of a problem, there was no fan or anything so the only way to stay cool was by keeping the window open, which of course let lots of bugs in. Luckily the mosquito netting around the bed kept them out while we slept. Having a massive jacuzzi was lovely and romantic. The only problem was when you turned the jets on there was kind of a funny smell. Also, we had the window open nearly constantly while we were there, but sometimes a rather sewerage smelling odor would waft in as well. The second night I simply had a bath without the jets (to avoid the smell) which was lovely, but it would have been better if I could have used the jets.

We enjoyed an afternoon walk around the tiny town. It was rather quiet, but charming. We were amused by the decor at the restaurant ‘De Pepermolen’ (The Peppermill).

The “Our Lady’s Church” featured an interesting shaped bell-tower, and there was some kind of sculpture display happening in the lawns before it.

I was most intrigued by this statue, which represents Willem van Saeftinghe, a Flemish folk hero who fought at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. There was also a statue for heroes of this battle in Bruges proper, so it’s obviously pretty important to the Belgian people! I found the details of his giant club and the tiny people around him rather fascinating.

One great thing about our accommodation was that it was directly next to the train station. There weren’t very many trains so the noise didn’t bother us, and even though we had a car this would make it very easy for anyone else staying here to get from Lissewege to Bruges, or to the beach in the other direction! When we had started to overheat while exploring Bruges we then decided to head to the beach since it was so close to Lissewege. I am always amazed by the beaches in the Netherlands (on the North shore) because of how flat they are, and how far out the water goes. This one at Zeebrugge was just the same.

There were apartments, beach clubs, some cafes and a playground along the promenade, but it seemed like you had to walk for MILES to get to the water! This always seems so strange to an Aussie like me, our Australian beaches are so different.

We walked.

And walked.

And walked.

Almost there, looking back, see how far away the buildings are!

Eventually we made it to the water, and the place was pretty busy. Even though the beaches are so different, salt water is salt water and I was pretty happy to get some sun, sand and salt to quench my beach longings! Of course it was also very nice to go back to our accommodation and wash the salt and sand off again in our nice big hot-tub!

If you are interested in our AirBnB accommodation you can check out the listing here. Have you ever been to the beach in Bruges? Tell me about it in the comments, or pin this for your own travel plans!

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