Rozenhoedkaai

This is the most photographed spot in Bruges, and it earns every pixel. The Rozenhoedkaai — Quay of the Rosary — sits at the junction where the Dijver and Groenerei canals meet, and the view from here encompasses the 13th-century Belfry reflected in the water, flanked by medieval stepped-gable houses draped with ivy. It looks like a painting, which is appropriate for a city that produced more paintings per square metre than anywhere else in 15th-century Europe.

The name comes from the rosary sellers who once traded at this spot, back when pilgrims passed through Bruges on their way to holy sites across Europe. But before it was a place of devotion, it was a place of commerce. In the late Middle Ages, the Rozenhoedkaai served as a mooring point for salt traders who unloaded their merchandise here. Salt was enormously valuable — the word "salary" derives from the Latin salarium, and in medieval Flanders, controlling the salt trade could make you richer than controlling the cloth trade.

The canal boat tours depart from several points near here, offering thirty-minute journeys through the city's waterways. The routes pass under ancient stone bridges, alongside the backs of patrician houses, and through stretches where the water seems to flow directly through people's living rooms. From a boat, Bruges looks less like a city and more like an elaborate stage set — which, in a sense, it is. The entire historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, meticulously preserved and polished to a high medieval sheen.

If you want the view without the crowds, come at dawn. By mid-morning in summer, the quay is packed with photographers, tour groups, and couples posing in front of the same composition that has launched a million Instagram posts.