The day after the lovely sunny day spent in Sint-Trudoabdij Male and Tudor City Park was not quite so sunny.  In fact there was a bit of drizzle when we set off in the morning, but not enough to stop the walking tour we had planned.  By lunch time the rain had become quite persistent and I decided  to cut the tour short before we all got soaked.

The first port of call was the Belfort which dominates the skyline of Bruges:

The belfort (belfry) dates from the 13th century.  The final storey (with the clock) was built in the 15th century.  A wooden spire one crowned the tower, but was destroyed, first by lightning in 1493, and then by fire in 1741, leaving it with its current truncated look.  Look closely and you may observe that the 83m tower leans very slightly to the south-east, by 1.2m at the summit.*

There are 366 steps to the summit, I declined the opportunity because I am not good at heights.  Unfortunately for those that did go to the top part of the view was blocked, so they didn’t get the full 360-degree view.

*Insight Guides, Bruges, Smart Guide