Zeebrugge/Bruges
The charming medieval city
Crowds tend to overwhelm Bruges nowadays – its reputation as a perfectly preserved medieval city has made it the most popular tourist destination in Belgium – but you’d be mad to come to Flanders.
With an MSC Northern Europe cruise and miss it: Bruges’ museums hold some of the country’s finest collections of Flemish art, and its intimate, winding streets, woven around a skein of narrow canals and lined with gorgeous ancient buildings, live up to even the most inflated tourist hype.
When you step ashore from your MSC cruise, the obvious start to an exploration of the city is the two principal squares: the Markt, overlooked by the mighty belfry, and the Burg, flanked by the city’s most impressive architectural ensemble. Almost within shouting distance are the three main museums, among which the Groeninge offers a wonderful sample of early Flemish art.
Another short hop brings you to St-Janshospitaal and the important paintings of the fifteenth-century artist Hans Memling, as well as Bruges’ most impressive churches, the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk and St-Salvatorskathedraal. Further afield, the gentle canals and maze-like cobbled streets of eastern Bruges – stretching out from Jan van Eyckplein – are extraordinarily pretty.
The most characteristic architectural feature is the crow-step gable, popular from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century and revived by the restorers of the 1880s, but there are also expansive Georgian-style mansions and humble, homely cottages.
Time and again the eye is surprised by the sober and subtle variety of the cityscape, featuring everything from intimate arched doorways and bendy tiled roofs to wonky chimneys and a bevy of discreet shrines and miniature statues.
cruises to zeebrugge
Excursions & Activities Zeebrugge (Bruges)
TRAVEL TO THE Zeebrugge (Bruges) CRUISE TERMINAL
Cruise Terminal ABC Tower:
Port of Zeebrugge - Zweedse Kaai
Rederskaai 60/61, Bruges 8380 Belgium
Parking Zweedse Kaai, Kaai 702
Address: Kustlaan, C.Ro Terminal Zweedse Kaai, 8380 Zeebrugge
Service: Parking can be used for free. Shuttle bus to check-in in cruise terminal. Parking is uncovered and fenced off.
How to book: No need to make a booking in advance. The service can be used booked for free from 6 up to 9 days long cruises. The parking is located next to the ABC-Tower and guests can park the car for free on a fenced-off parking lot. As the parking area is located within the official port zone, guests must complete a mandatory registration on arrival providing email address, name of the person in charge of the vehicle, contact details (mobile phone), license plate.
Guests can park their car on the ‘Zweedse Kaai’, next to the cruise terminal. This is a secured parking, so the parking is only open on the day of embarkation and disembarkation and closed for the duration of the cruise. On other days, nobody is allowed on the parking. Guests can park their car here if their name is on the list of embarking passengers and if they can proof their identity by showing their International passport.
Please note: The port authority, MSC Cruises and MSC Belgium are not liable for any incidents that may occur.
Guests can reach the port by plane if they fly to Brussels airport Zaventem. From there, they can take the train to Blankenberge and then the tram to Zeebrugge (see section ‘Reach the port by train’).
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The easiest way to get to the the port of Zeebrugge by train is by taking the train to Blankenberge. From there, the guests can take the tram to Zeebrugge. The tram station is located in front of the railway station. Guests should take the tram with direction ‘Knokke’.
