Story Title: A Story Book Town
Episode: 7
Broadcast Date: 8th February 2014
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane

If you're after a storybook European city, Bruges ticks every box; horse-drawn carriages; tiny cobbled streets; handmade stone bridges; canals filled with swans, gargoyles on the corners of Gothic churches and at night, slightly askew towers illuminated by golden light.

Little Venice

• Also known as the Venice of the North, Bruges gets its name from the multiple canals that surround the city centre with more than 80 bridges, making it easy to explore on foot or by bicycle as well as on one of the many boat tours.
• With more castles per square inch than any other country, around 50 of the 470 castles in the Flanders region are based around Bruges.
• In the middle ages, the wealth of waterways made Bruges the world’s ‘chief commercial city’ and was considered to be the wealthiest city in Europe.
• Bruges boasts more than 50 chocolate shops, mostly in the main square. But not all of them stock their own sweets. Look out for a ‘handmade’ sign in the chocolatier’s windows.
• The artistic treasure of Bruges is Michelangelo's marble Madonna With Child, in the Church of Our Lady. This exquisite sculpture was believed to be the master's only work to leave Italy in his lifetime.
• Belgian’s superhighway system, which stretches out to Bruges, is the only man-made structure on Earth that you can see from the moon. It’s thanks to the large lamp posts lining the network that it’s visible at night from that far away.
• The city is not just known for its beer and chocolate, it is also famous for its lace and makes some of the most luxurious lace in the world. It’s able to produce such large quantities of fabric for the lace due to the vast amounts of Flax flowers that are grown in the Flanders region.
• For more information on European Tours click here.

Contact
Scenic Tours
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