One day in Brugge: a self-guided walking itinerary

The Markt, the Belfort and the Burg

Start on the Markt before the square fills and take the Belfort's opening slot. Book it online and be at the door on time, because a missed time means a lapsed ticket. The climb is 366 steps to the carillon and the best view in the city, and the descent drops you by the Rozenhoedkaai, the canal bend on every postcard. Follow the water to the Vismarkt, where Calloigne's colonnade of 1820 still shelters fish stalls on Wednesday to Saturday mornings, then climb to the Burg for the two buildings that ran Bruges: the Basilica of the Holy Blood, free to enter and home to the relic, and the Gothic town hall beside it.

• HoursThe Belfort opens 09:00 to 20:00 daily from 1 April to 2 November; outside that season it opens at 10:00 and closes at 18:00 on weekdays and Sundays, and keeps 09:00 to 20:00 on Saturdays. Last entry is an hour before closing.SourceMusea Brugge: Belfort
• TicketsBelfort tickets cost €16 at weekends and throughout the summer season, and €15 on winter weekdays. Timed tickets are sold online, and the tower's own advice is to reserve before you come.SourceMusea Brugge: Belfort·Visit Bruges: Belfort (Belfry)
• HoursThe Vismarkt fish stalls trade from Wednesday to Saturday mornings.SourceVisit Bruges: Vismarkt (Fish Market)
• CostThe Basilica of the Holy Blood opens daily 10:00 to 17:15 and entry is free; the museum and treasury cost €5, and children under 12 go free.SourceBasilica of the Holy Blood

EatA cone of grey shrimp from the Vismarkt stalls if you pass on a Wednesday to Saturday morning, and coffee on the Markt before the Belfort opens.

Michelangelo, Memling and the beer that paid for it

• 1Bonifaciusbrug1 min
• 2Gruuthusemuseum1 min
• 3Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk1 min
• 4Sint-Janshospitaal3 min
• 5Brouwerij De Halve Maan3 min

The middle of the day goes indoors. Walk south from the Burg to the Bonifaciusbrug, the small bridge below the wall of the Gruuthusemuseum, a palace the family paid for with the herb mixture brewers were once obliged to buy from them. The late-15th-century oratory inside looks straight into the choir of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk; the church itself is free and the ticket is for the museum section, where Michelangelo's marble Madonna and Child stands, the only sculpture of his that left Italy in his lifetime. Then Museum Sint-Janshospitaal, a hospital since around 1150, with Memling's painted shrine of Saint Ursula as the reason to go in. Lunch is late at the brasserie of Brouwerij De Halve Maan on Walplein, where the family has brewed since 1856 and the classic tour ends with a beer and a view from the roof.

• TicketsThe Gruuthusemuseum costs €15 and closes on Wednesdays; the combi ticket with the O.L.V.-kerk Museum is €19 and stays valid for 72 hours.SourceMusea Brugge: Gruuthusemuseum·Musea Brugge: tickets and combi deals
• TicketsThe Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk is free to enter, and the museum section with Michelangelo's Madonna and Child costs €10; it opens 09:30 to 17:00, and at 13:30 on Sundays.SourceMusea Brugge: O.L.V.-kerk Museum
• HoursMuseum Sint-Janshospitaal opens 09:30 to 17:00 and closes on Mondays; standard admission is €15.SourceMusea Brugge: Museum Sint-Janshospitaal

EatLunch at the brasserie of Brouwerij De Halve Maan, Walplein 26, either side of the brewery tour.

The water, the Beguinage and the old quay

• 6Begijnhof4 min
• 7Minnewater2 min
• 8Poertoren

Late afternoon belongs to the water. The Begijnhof courtyard of white houses is free to walk and still home to nuns, so keep your voice down and stay on the paths; from there the Minnewater, with its lock house and the little castle of 1893, leads out to the Poertoren, the brick gunpowder tower on the old rampart. Turn north and cross the middle of town to the Peerdenbrug, the horses' bridge over the canal that carried Bruges' trade, then on to Sint-Walburgakerk on Sint-Maartensplein, whose pulpit is the finest in the city, and finish on Jan van Eyckplein, the old harbour quay where cargo was weighed and taxed.

• Bruges' outer rampart was laid out at the end of the 13th century, and windmills have stood on it since then.SourceVisit Bruges: Sint-Janshuismolen

Sint-Anna and the windmills at the end of the day

Supper first, at Café Vlissinghe on Blekersstraat, where the taproom has been pouring since 1515. Then the working side of Bruges on foot: Sint-Annakerk on Sint-Annaplein, the Adornes family's Jerusalem chapel behind its wall on Peperstraat, the lace workshops of Balstraat, and out along the Kruisvest to the Sint-Janshuismolen, the one mill in the city that still grinds grain, and the Bonne Chièremolen, a decorative mill brought here from another Flemish town, finishing at the Kruispoort gate. Every sight on this stretch shuts by 17:00 (18:00 on summer Saturdays at the Adornesdomein), and the Adornesdomein and Kantcentrum also close on Sundays, so treat this as the outside walk it is; if you want the chapel, the bobbins and the mill mechanism from the inside, run the route in daylight from Tuesday to Saturday and put the southern museums on another day. From November to February this part of the day is walked after dark.

• HoursThe Adornesdomein, home of the Jerusalem chapel, opens Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and until 18:00 on Saturdays from April to September; it closes on Sundays and public holidays, and adults pay €11.SourceAdornesdomein: practical information
• HoursThe Kantcentrum museum opens Monday to Saturday 09:30 to 17:00 with lace demonstrations from 14:00 to 17:00, and closes on Sundays; admission is €8, or €6 for ages 12 to 25 and over-65s, and online tickets stop at 16:00.SourceKantcentrum: info and contact
• HoursSint-Janshuismolen grinds from 1 April to 2 November, open 09:30 to 12:30 and 13:30 to 17:00, closed on Mondays; from December it opens only on the second Sunday of the month, and admission is €5.SourceMusea Brugge: Sint-Janshuismolen
• EatCafé Vlissinghe, Blekersstraat 2, has traded since 1515 and is open daily from 11:00 to 21:00.SourceCafé Vlissinghe

EatSupper at Café Vlissinghe, Blekersstraat 2, open daily until 21:00.