A leading contender for the title of Europe's most romantic town, Bruges is really one big attraction -- a fairy-tale mixture of gabled houses, meandering canals, magnificent squares, and narrow cobblestone streets.
City Gates
The now-vanished city wall once boasted nine powerfully fortified gates dating from the 14th century. The four that survive are (clockwise from the rail station) the imposing Smedenpoort; Ezelpoort, which is famed for the many swans that grace the moat beside it; Kruispoort, which looks more like a castle with a drawbridge; and Gentpoort, now reduced in status to a traffic obstacle. Only one defensive tower remains, the Poertoren, which was used as a gunpowder store and overlooks the Minnewater (Lake of Love).
Windmills
The park that marks the line of the city walls between Kruispoort and Dampoort in the northeast is occupied by a row of very photogenic windmills. They are (from south to north) the Bonne Chière Mill, built in 1888 at Olsene in East Flanders and moved here in 1911; Sint-Janshuismolen, built in 1770 and open free to the public from April to September daily from 9:30am to 12:30pm and 1:30 to 5pm; Nieuwe Papegaai Mill, an oil mill rebuilt here in 1970; and Koeleweymolen, dating from 1765, rebuilt here in 1996 and open free to the public from June to September daily from 9:30am to 12:30pm and 1:30 to 5pm.
