A lot can happen in 24 hours. Just ask Jack Bauer. One can soar from enemy of the state to national hero (and back again), governments can topple, and trusted colleagues be outed as terrorists.
Twenty-four hours is also, it turns out, enough time to do a mini-break to Bruges in which you eat a lot of chocolate, drink a great deal of beer and see a score of Renaissance masterpieces. (Okay, strictly speaking I was in the city for about 29 hours, but let’s call it artistic license…).
Until now Eurostar has been synonymous with Paris for me, but it turns out that you can travel via Brussels to Antwerp, Ghent and various coastal destinations, as well as Bruges, with a single ‘Any Belgian Station’ ticket. Setting off from St Pancras just before 7am, a couple of hours later I’m picking up a coffee and croissant in Brussels Midi before hopping on a domestic train from the same station for the final hour-long leg on a domestic train.
Hotel Prinsenhof is my base for the night. It’s a quiet boutique hotel on a cobbled street just a couple minutes’ walk from Bruges’ main Grote Markt square, replete with quirky design flourishes such as the wall of bowler hats in the bar and peacock-patterned wallpaper in my room. The deep jacuzzi bath beckons after my early start. However, time is of the essence, so I head to lunch at Cambrinus, a convivial old tavern serving up hearty Flemish cuisine. Fish stew with sole, scallops and salmon warm the cockles for an afternoon of sight-seeing, washed down with my first draft of locally brewed De Halve Maan blond beer.
One of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe, Bruges’ Old Town is an open-air museum of narrow, step-gabled townhouses overlooking sinuous canals, and majestic gothic towers brooding over cobbled squares. These all serve as a reminder of the city’s golden age, where the waterways dug in the 12th century to connect to the sea transformed the city into a key trading port. Thanks to this, there’s no end of impressive churches and civic building to peruse. We prioritise the Church of Our Lady – which boasts Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child – and brooding, Romanesque Basilica of the Holy Blood, before swapping the sacred for the profane with a tasting session in ‘T Bruges Beertje – a candlelit side-street café stocking an impressive 300 Belgian beers.
Dinner at Restaurant Patrick Devos, meanwhile, proves that there’s a lot more to Belgian cuisine than chocolate and beer. Through its intimate salons and beautifully preserved Art Deco and Art Nouveau decor, the owners (a husband and wife team) have very much maintained feel of private house. The set menu – which they happily tailored to suit my pescetarian inclinations, as well as offering good vegetarian options – focuses on beautifully presented, seasonal dishes individually paired with fine wines. It began with discs of black truffle on potato and celeriac – crisp, nutty and slightly tart, this made for a refreshing change to the unctuous, heavy pasta or risotto dishes with which truffle usually paired. An equally unusual and inspired combination was pepper-coated conger eel with sweet, earthy cauliflower puree and sautéed mushrooms. The only course that wasn’t a resounding success, in fact, was a turbot main. Dessert paid homage to a single ingredient – the humble chestnut – and gave it five delicate incarnations with contrasting textures: an ice cream, parfait, flan, sponge and candied with dates. In short, for any gastronomes visiting Bruges, a trip to Patrick Devos is a must.
Having eschewed grain for grape that evening, we teetered over to romantic little bolthole Wijnbar Est for a nightcap. It may be tiny, but the selection of local and imported wines is formidable (including many by the glass), and its Sunday live jazz sessions are particularly legendary.
The next morning I perused the stalls at the ‘T Z and Square’ food market (Saturdays, 8am-1pm) for some breakfast; granted, it’s not the most picturesque or artisanal of markets, but I picked up a fresh apricot Danish for one Euro and then wandered to the nearby canal-side path, Dijver, to devour it.
Garemijn, ‘The Pandreitje in Bruges’ (1778)
I was then in prime position for a visit to the Groeninge Museum to marvel at Flemish Renaissance masterpieces by artists such as Jan Van Eyck, Gerard David, Hieronymous Bosch and Hans Memling. The darkened rooms and uninspiring displays of the neighbouring Gruuthuse, on the other hand, are not worth the time unless you’re fanatical about metalwork or masonry.
No trip to Belgium would seem complete without some moules frites, and I had mine with view over the canal in the rather grand dining room – all tapestries, brass candelabra and rose-coloured velvet – of the Duc de Bourgogne. I eschewed pudding in favour of a spending spree in The Chocolate Line on Simon Stevenplein square. One can hardly move in Bruges for chocolate shops, but this particular one is famous for its quirky flavours such as wasabi or bacon (owner Dominique Persoone is essentially chocolate’s answer to Heston Blumenthal), although there are also plenty of caramel and praline varieties for traditionalists.
Funny how much time seems to expand when you’re in a new place; whereas days can fly by in London with barely any distinction between them, I felt I’d somehow condensed days into this one short but sweet trip. Laden with cocoa-based souvenirs, I took one last longing look (and some smug Instagram shots) of the sun-dappled canal from Wollestraat bridge before heading home. I reckon Jack Bauer could do with giving my sort of twenty-four hour itinerary a try.
Eurostar offers ‘any station’ tickets in Belgium from £79 return, including Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent and stations along the Belgian Coast. Eurostar operates up to 9 daily services from London St Pancras International to Brussels Midi and from there passengers use their Any Belgian Station ticket to connect on to local services to their final destination. Fastest London-Brussels journey time is 2hrs. Tickets are available from eurostar.com or 08432 186 186.
