Can you give me some ideas of specialty items from Bruge and possibly the areas they might be in?

The biggies in Bruges are chocolate and lace and they are <i>everywhere</i>.

Just make sure you look at the labels - a lot of the lace is made in China.

Also tapestry items - also available everywhere .

When we were in Bruges in May, I picked up a few sofa accent pillowcases at the store near the horse carriages in the Begijnhof area These were animal themed -- one small pillowcase featured a red squirrel, the two slightly larger square cases had a chamois and an ibex. (We lived in Switzerland, so we went with a mountain/forest animal theme)

The best chocolate is made by Dominique Persoone. His store - The Chocolate Line - is on Simon Stevinplein.

Note: these were contemporary in style, not the old tapestry style. They weren't expensive - about 20 euros each, as I recall -- and were easy to pack. You can, if you wish, also buy the pillow for the pillowcase (sold separately). I did get that to go with the squirrel pillowcase because it was an unusual size.

I would go with the handmade chocolates. Not cheap but incredibly superior to almost anything in the US. We tried several small shops and it was all irresistible.

Oh - yeah I forgot about the tapestries -- some really wonderful hangings and pillows.

But chocolate is tops

In addition to chocolate (and I would add Dumon to the list in addition to the Chocolate line), I also loved lots of stuff at a neat store called Dille and Kamille (sorry, don't recall the address but it was central) where they had loads of well priced linen - napkins, runners, etc.- as well as kitchen and household products. Really a great store!

thanks everyone. I saw website for Dille and Kamille and I will definitely stop!

The chocolates we brought back were very well received; my favorite item we kept was the rectangular pillow cover composed of the roof lines/buildings in Bruges. So glad I purchased it and we enjoy it every day.