Blood of Christ - Brugges

Brugge Beer

Belgium is pretty small and with high speed trains it was so easy to get from one place to another …. All within a few hours … for a price … Yet it was not the pricy train tickets like in Germany or Switzerland hence I was happy to hop around more frequently.

Initially my plan was to visit Brussels … that was the only city I marked out during the initial planning stage back before I started … but then I knew nothing about Belgium other than the chocolates that friends and family buys back as treats from airports.

Lucky thing was that all the hostel in Belgium had this small little local city tourist map in cartoon form that also recommends other towns and city in Belgium. So next stop after Antwerp was Brugges.

Local one way train ticket was 13.70 Euro .



Brugges was an amazing old old old …. Super old town feel where the whole inner city was like a town in medieval time frozen. Try to ignore the electricity and modern plumbing and some modern lights but other than that it was fascinating.

Towards the center of the old city the square opens up into majestic buildings such as clock towers and town halls and the mystical church which I read in the lonely planet book about a relic.

Brugge Old Town Square

Attendant watching the Holy Blood of Christ

It took me a while to find the church since I mistakenly went into the town hall but there it was small, not so glamorous, yet attracted pilgrimage all over the world. The church apparently claimed to have a tiny bottle of Christ’s blood in their possession and was on display for any whom might want to see, touch ( only the tube not the blood itself ), photograph, or pray. 

I being curious of course would not miss going in to see it with my own eyes. There was not many people I guess in winter. Christian’s would stroll up to the attendant which sole job was to watch the tube which contained Christ’s Blood while people place their hand on top of the tube and say a silent prayer. The attendant would then wipe the top of the tube after the first person had left for the next person to repeat the same process. Then there was of course the tourist which would stroll up and politely ask for a photograph, Click and on their way ….

As of how it look like … I guess you just have to visit Brugge

Basilica of the Holy Blood