When In Bruges: Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel

Surely you’ve seen In Bruges?! Well we have, and we saw it again before the big birthday trip just for good measure. This is the very hotel featured in the movie.

In person, Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel is much more sedate and refined. No guns. No child murderers. No rooms full of crazy parties with cocaine and hookers. Darn.

We are actually on a scouting expedition for our return in July. Here’s what we learned.

Room 25 is the one we want. This time we were in 20, which is a very nice room that overlooks the canal but is a smidge small and has extremely limited closet space. So we looked at all the other rooms and 15 and 25 are the new targets.

Room 20 is the one on the right on the second floor where we stayed this time.

And what is that? Real klimt on the wall?? Yup. Lots of real pictures.

No wait really is that a Matisse?

Yes and in fact there is another on the wall in room 20.

We arrived so early that we simply dropped our bags and walked over to hop on a boat. We lulled Madou into a false sense of security by visting 5 previous times and never doing anything touristy. Bwahahaha!

This time he rode the boat.

We even made him climb the tower! But then he ran away, leaving us to explore on our own before returning with reinforcements for dinner.

What a view.

Euro-bathroom might kill you if you are a lawyer.

The breakfast room is very nice, but our quick hit did not include time for that. We were up way too early to take the direct train to Brussels airport (about 90 minutes and very easy) and fly home. The logistics of being in Bruge are excellent on that front.

Dinner at Republiek was great, especially with the entire gang. There was also mandatory ice cream.

All in all Bruges is very much a tourist town, smelling faintly of sugar and clogged up with lost people walking in circles. But it is worth a visit, if not just to drag Madou up the tower.

Four showerheads for Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel, a romantic little gem hidden among the droves.