Bruges itinerary for first-timers

The Markt is the heart of Bruges: a wide square of colourful step-gabled guild houses, the neo-Gothic Provincial Court on its east side and the statue of the medieval rebels Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck in the middle. Above it all rises the 83-metre Belfry, whose 366 steps lead to a view over the red roofs of the whole city, with its carillon ringing out across the square.

• Belfry
• Provincial Court
• Breydel and De Coninck statue
• Guild houses

Climb the Belfry first thing in the morning; the narrow stairway is one-way traffic in places and the queue grows quickly from mid-morning.

A two-minute walk from the Markt, the Burg was the seat of the counts of Flanders. Its Gothic City Hall, with a stone façade of statues and turrets, is one of the oldest in the Low Countries, and in the corner of the square the Basilica of the Holy Blood pairs a dark Romanesque lower chapel with a richly painted upper chapel that keeps a relic said to hold drops of Christ's blood.

• City Hall
• Basilica of the Holy Blood
• Blinde-Ezelstraat arch
• Old Civil Registry

The relic is carried through the streets in a large procession every year on Ascension Day.

Through the arch of the Blinde-Ezelstraat, the colonnaded Fish Market still has its stone counters. Just beyond it, the Rozenhoedkaai is the most photographed corner of Bruges: a bend in the canal with old brick houses rising straight from the water and the Belfry behind them. From here the tree-lined Dijver canal runs south past the museums, and most of the canal boat jetties are along this stretch.

• Fish Market
• Rozenhoedkaai
• Dijver canal
• Canal boats
• Nepomucenus Bridge

A canal boat trip takes about half an hour; the boats are quietest at the start of the day and the light on the Rozenhoedkaai is softest in the morning or at dusk.

The brick tower of the Church of Our Lady is one of the tallest in Belgium, and inside the church is a marble Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, one of the few works by him to leave Italy in his lifetime. Behind the church, the little stone Boniface Bridge crosses a narrow canal between ivy-covered walls and the Gruuthuse palace, one of the most romantic spots in the city.

• Church of Our Lady
• Michelangelo's Madonna
• Boniface Bridge
• Arentshof garden
• Gruuthuse palace

Down Katelijnestraat and over a small bridge, the Begijnhof is a ring of whitewashed houses around a lawn of tall trees, founded in the 13th century for the beguines, lay religious women who lived here in community; Benedictine nuns live there today, and the courtyard is kept quiet. Just south lies the Minnewater, the 'Lake of Love', once the city's inner harbour basin and now a calm lake with swans, a lock house and a park.

• Begijnhof courtyard
• Begijnhof bridge
• Minnewater
• Lovers' Bridge
• Minnewater park

Keep your voice down inside the Begijnhof; it is still a place of quiet religious life, and the gates close in the evening.

North of the Markt the crowds thin out almost at once. The Augustijnenrei and the Gouden-Handrei are quiet canal quays lined with brick houses, gardens and small bridges, where the only sound in the morning is often a bicycle on the cobbles. This was the part of medieval Bruges where foreign merchants lived and traded, and it feels like a different city from the busy centre.

• Augustijnenrei
• Spaanse Loskaai
• Gouden-Handrei
• Sint-Annarei

This is the best part of Bruges for an early walk; the canals here are almost empty before the day-trippers arrive.

Jan van Eyckplein was the old harbour square of Bruges, where ships unloaded at the end of the canal. The slim tower of the Burghers' Lodge, the 15th-century Toll House and a statue of the painter Jan van Eyck stand around it. From here the Spinolarei canal leads east to the King's Bridge, and a short way south the baroque St. Walburga's Church, built by the Jesuits, rises above the rooftops.

• Burghers' Lodge
• Toll House
• Jan van Eyck statue
• Spinolarei
• King's Bridge
• St. Walburga's Church

Across the canal, Sint-Anna is a residential quarter of low brick houses, almshouses and quiet squares where local life carries on away from the tourist trail. Its centre is Sint-Annaplein and its church, and a few lanes away the Jerusalem Chapel, built by a wealthy merchant family in the 15th century after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, has an unusual tower modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

• Sint-Annaplein
• St. Anne's Church
• Jerusalem Chapel
• Balstraat
• Almshouses

Balstraat, beside the Jerusalem Chapel, is one of the best-preserved lanes in Bruges; walk it slowly.

On the grassy ramparts along the eastern edge of the old town, the Kruisvest, stand four windmills, the last of the many that once ringed Bruges. They line a raised path above the outer canal, with views back over the rooftops and towers, and one of them, the Sint-Janshuismolen, still grinds grain and can be visited inside.

• Sint-Janshuismolen
• Koelewei mill
• Kruisvest ramparts
• Kruispoort city gate

The ramparts are a favourite local spot for a late-afternoon walk; continue south along them to the Kruispoort, one of the old city gates.

Walking back towards the centre, the Predikherenrei and the Groenerei, the 'green canal', are among the most beautiful stretches of water in the city: quiet quays shaded by trees, small humpbacked bridges and old almshouses reflected in the canal. At dusk, when the bridges and façades are lit, this is the gentlest way to end the day before coming out by the Fish Market and the Burg.

• Predikherenrei
• Groenerei
• Canal bridges
• Steenhouwersdijk