Essential Dutch phrases

The city's one-stop counter, where registration, the eID and the driving licence are handled. In Flanders the administrative language is Dutch — unlike Brussels you have no right to be served in French.

The paper slip proving your registration is under way. Not an identity card, but for a few weeks it is your only proof of lawful presence in the country.

The neighbourhood police officer who calls at your address, unannounced, to confirm you really live there. Nothing else moves until that report comes back positive.

The health insurance fund you must choose and join yourself. Membership is compulsory but enrolment is not automatic — nobody signs you up.

The absolute ban on new holiday lets inside the historic centre. It exists so that houses stay houses, and it is the single most important planning rule in the city for anyone renting or buying here.

One of the villages merged into Bruges in 1971 — Sint-Andries, Sint-Michiels, Assebroek, Sint-Kruis, Koolkerke, Dudzele, Lissewege and Zeebrugge. Most Bruggelingen live in one of these, not in the postcard.

Flanders' compulsory civic integration path — social orientation, Dutch, guidance towards work. In Bruges it runs through the regional agency, not a city one, and since September 2023 the newcomer part-pays for it.

The canals that thread the centre, and the reason the place is called the Venice of the North by everyone except the people who live there.

'Bruges fool' — the city's own beer and its own nickname, from a legend about Maximilian of Austria telling the city it had fools enough already. Ordered by name in every café.

West Flemish for going out for a drink. The dialect here is genuinely hard, even for other Flemings, and locals will switch to standard Dutch for you — but they are not speaking it to each other.

'Blimey'. Surprise, admiration or dismay depending entirely on the tone — the most Flemish noise you can make, and one you will pick up within a month.

112 for ambulance or fire, 101 for urgent police, and 1722 for non-urgent fire brigade help — which on this coast means storm damage. Using 112 for a fallen branch clogs the emergency line.