Bruges got rich on cloth, lost its access to the sea when the channel silted up, and spent four centuries too poor to modernise, which is why the fifteenth century is still standing. You walk the canals, the Markt and the Burg, see the belfry and the Groeningemuseum's Flemish primitives, and stop where the guide judges best for lunch. Bring a passport, you are crossing a border.
