Brugge, Belgium

Pat and I arrived in Brugge, Belgium around dinner time on Sunday, August 29th. We were still in the middle of our day where we had to stay up all day to help us get rid of our time zone lag. In English, Brugge is pronounced with the "gg" being very soft, almost like a "sh" sound. However, in German it is pronounced "broo-gah". I learned this out later when my flatmates had no idea where "Brugshe" was, but knew exactly what "broo-gah" was! Their main language is Flemish. I quickly learned that most people know two or even three languages. My first impression of Brugge was not too pleasant. It was raining, and the tourist information center was closed when we got there. We got a taxi who took us to our hotel, which was about ten minutes from the station. He recommended a few restaurants that were not tourist traps, and we took him up on his suggestions. After settling into our hotel, we walked to a restaurant about ten minutes from our hotel. I was looking for something healthy since, as well all know, airplane food isn't the greatest ;) I ordered a salad with tomatoes, large chunks of cheese, onions, and a vinaigrette dressing. It was absolutely delicious, probably one of the best salads I have ever had! This was also my first tasting of Belgian Beer. Pat treated me to a Lindeman's Raspberry Bier, which was absolutely delicious as well. We talked to a nice British couple with a young boy; they told us some sights to see, and it was very nice to hear some English spoken, rather than German or Flemish.

The next day we began our full day of sightseeing. We began with the Main Town Square, where the large bell tower, called the "Belfry", sits and towers over the square. Brugge is a very nice town because it is small enough that you can manage perfectly without a taxi or public transportation. We climbed the bell tower, all 366 steps of it! All of the stairways were spiral and small, so it made it quite interesting getting up and down. The picture is one of the views from the bell tower. When we finished, we walked to Burg Square. There was a nice art museum where we took a tour. The paintings that they had were absolutely stunning; unfortunately taking pictures was "verboten". We next decided that we wanted to rent bikes. We took a very nice bike trail to a small town just ten kilometers outside of Brugge called Damme. We biked along a canal. There was an extremely strong wind that day so it was quite a challenge to get there. Once we arrived in Damme, we found a nice cafe. We ordered a late lunch that consisted of a Waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, and Pat had a Crepe with Chocolate. This had to be the best Waffle I have ever tasted in my life. Belgium is famous for its Waffles; mine was extremely crisp, warm, and perfect! We biked back to Brugge and toured a part of town that was new to us. Brugge reminds me a lot of Amsterdam because there are canals everywhere. I thought that with canals it would be easier to not get lost. However, Brugge rarely had street signs and the roads were extremely twisty, so we ended up getting lost a few times. We found an outside cafe to eat dinner. I had a small steak, but most importantly, it had french fries as a side. Belgians are famous for their french fries and they were absolutely delicious! Very crispy and cooked just right. While talking to our waiter, we found out that he spoke five languages! We went back to our hotel and called it a night. The next morning, we woke up early and headed out as early as we could. Pat and I took a boat ride on the canals, which was an excellent idea. We saw the city from a completely different view and were able to get some amazing pictures. After this boat trip finished, we headed to "Our Lady's Church" to view the only Michelangelo sculpture that has ever left Italy. It was absolutely stunning, words cannot be used to describe it! This ended our time in Brugge, and we hopped on a train headed to Brussells.