Places/Belgium

West Flanders

Bruges

A medieval city that is perfectly intact and, by noon, perfectly full. Sleep there or do not bother.

Bruges is as beautiful as its reputation, which is the problem and the reason. At eight in the morning it is a city. At one it is a crowd walking the same loop. Stay the night and you get both, and the better half.

It is small. Two nights is generous. One night is enough if you arrive before dinner and leave after the next morning. An afternoon from a cruise or a coach is a postcard you stood inside.

See

• The canals before breakfast

  The belfry will still be there at noon. The quiet will not. Walk first.

• The belfry, if your knees agree

  A narrow climb and a view of rooftops. Skip it without guilt if the queue fills the square. The square itself is the sight.

• A museum of one thing

  Memling, or the Groeninge, not both plus a chocolate museum plus a brewery. The city is already a lot of stone.

• Minnewater and out

  The lake at the south edge is the walk that lets the centre be small again.