blankenberge—brugge 19—22.07.2026

my situationship had eye surgery monday morning and a check-up on wednesday. the surgery was in blankenberge (a city on the belgian coast) and the check-up in brugge (bruges). in order to make those days both easier and more fun, we made it a little 'medical trip', from sunday to wednesday. of course it wasn't entirely a relaxing vacation as he needed enough rest after the surgery etc., but overall we did some sightseeing, ate out, visited two museums and some churches. and we made the best of it! here are some picz if you're interested!

-

sunday evening in blankenberge. overall, this is not the prettiest city ever. i'm not showing the ugly/bland parts here of course. there definitely are a decent amount of really cool buildings though. and the belgian beaches are always super beautiful. i love our sandy beaches and our north sea, which is always changing colours, ranging from blue to green to cyan to gray and everything inbetween. the Pier was originally built in 1893 in cast iron and wood. it was destroyed by the Germans in WWI. in 1933, a new modernist one was built, in concrete. however they didn't adept to the salty seawater (how can u possibly forget about that lol) and so it started eroding from day one. by 2003, the pier's building had been rebuilt using better materials, and just in 2023 the walkways reopened after also being rebuilt from scratch. despite the young material state, it really feels like stepping into the 1930s, and the final result is truly awesome.

(link if it doesn't load: https://i.postimg.cc/4GMgzDQq/blankenberge-1.png)

some more picz from inside the pier building and that sunset.

(https://i.postimg.cc/8G3Sh2mZ/blankenberge-2.png)

we finished our evening walk through the city centre. it has a few preserved belle epoque (late 19th century) houses with ceramic tiles, and the old city hall (1680). monday morning, he went into surgery. the hospital staff was crazy friendly. like every single person was super sweet, making the experience as pleasant as it could be. the surgery went perfect. for the rest of the day, i had to guide my bestie by hand, as he could barely see out of his fresh eye (he only has one working eye). we saw this beautiful church (Saint Anthony's) from the 14th century with inside mostly 17th-18th century decoration. and a tiny fisher's house from the late 18th century, which is the oldest well preserved fisher's house on the coast; Huis Majutte.

(https://i.postimg.cc/HYf1dMkR/blankenberge-3.png)

in the afternoon we headed to brugge. only a few hours after the surgery, his sight started returning. we still kept it chill but we did an extensive visit to the Saint Salvator's cathedral which we could see right from our hotel. top two pics was our view from the hotel window!!! def among the most beautiful hotel views i've ever had!! the cathedral is largely from the 1200s and houses extensive amounts of artworks inside. i got a picture in front of The Death of Mary by Hugo van der Goes, made somewhere between 1472 and 1481. super vibrant painting. and bottom right is just one detail of the extraordinary The Last Supper, 1559, Pieter Pourbus. that face is one of the most beautifully painted faces i've ever seen. photo doesn't do it justice, but it looked like there was warm skin and meat right there on the canvas, in hyper HD, more real than real life. kind of like an extremely detailed digital 3D model feel. just amazing.

(https://i.postimg.cc/WNDcB8sV/brugge-1.png)

further in the Saint Salvator's, more beautiful paintings, painted ceilings and walls, touching jesus sculptures... and uncovered stone graves from the 15th century. in that time, people had to be buried THE SAME DAY OF DEATH, so coffin artists were asked in a hurry to paint some basic biblical scenes in simple stone coffins, so that the deceased could be buried surrounded by christian artwork.

(https://i.postimg.cc/cxKGph0B/brugge-2.png)

a final shot of murals in the baptistery. then we went to a great italian restaurant with a lovely view. we walked back to the hotel during the blue hour. bottom right is the next day, a lovely row of houses.

(https://i.postimg.cc/fMZZVYfm/brugge-3.png)

but first: after the restaurant my situationship was understandably super tired but i wasn't. after watching some tv together, i wanted to make a late evening walk. so i went on my own and enjoyed the quiet scenery.

(https://i.postimg.cc/4XZZYpQX/brugge-4.png)

tuesday it was july 21st, the national holiday. belgium isn't a very patriotic country so the national holiday basically just means closed business since everyone's off work. except for some festivities in brussels, everything kind of falls dead. we tried to celebrate belgian things in our own way: we ate waffles and drank chocolate milk, bought chocolates, visited the beer museum (which was one of the museums that was open) and uhhh held gay hands in a gay way. and we walked past some more gorgeous architecture.

(https://i.postimg.cc/rqccD5NG/brugge-5.png)

we ended the day in a very cool, pretty alternative bar (for bruges' classical goody-good-shoes standards). we were drinking a hot chocolate and a mexican hot pepper drink when randomly a goat walked in. like a goat on a leash. nobody even looked puzzled 'cause they were all regulars. the owner's dog was intensely looking down from the upper floor lol. and again we had an evening walk until we ended up at the hotel.

(https://i.postimg.cc/cskNk2yh/brugge-6.png)

wednesday, the check-up went well. no issues! we wanted to do one museum before going home. we decided on the groeningemuseum, which is basically the main art museum of brugge. the building itself is bland and ugly but the collection is quite nice, if surprisingly limited. but that was fine because we were too tired for a huge museum anyway.

(https://i.postimg.cc/0xT9qT6Y/brugge-7.png)

okay these blogs always turn out longer than expected. i hope you enjoyed it a little :) and i hope every picture loaded.