Ribes Ruddervoorde

I slept really well last night at Johanna's place (yes, I promise to make entries -even if they're short- for past days/cities). Then this morning I took the bus under a light drizzle to the Ghent main train station. There I paid my 6.6 Euros for a round trip (weekend price) to Brugges (Brugge/Brujas), which I had heard so much about.

I had quite the positive attitude, even as the rain fell against my ...

... is the largest collection of musical instruments in the world, and for only 4 euro (with a student card discount), I spent a good couple of hours visiting the hundreds and hundreds of musical instruments, which automatically play 2 or 3 short pieces through your wireless headphones as you walk around the different exhibits. -

It was "fun" (quote marks intended for ...

... well I think, travelling over 1400 miles (or over 2300km) and the car ran faultlessly! Overall it was an awesome holiday, we all had heaps of fun and all said we'd like to do it again. The next one is in early May, and is going to be a motorsport themed event, running through France to Monaco, ending at the Monaco Grand Prix. I'd really like to go on this rally, but won't be able to as I'll be on the Topdeck training trip!

... on the final 3 or so hours of our trip to Brugge near the coast. We were a little late arriving....we were supposed to meet up at 7:30pm for the awards ceremony at 8pm, but we didn't make it to the bar until 9:30 - oops! We received our medals and bottle of cheap wine for finishing, then went off to find some dinner.
As it was now past 10:30 we had to go for the first restaurant we could find, and we went to a place selling Argentinian food of all things! I'd never had ...

... at the end.
We also toured the local De Halv Maans brewery, which offered good views at the top and pretty good beer. And we found the newest idea in take out--fast food pasta! They cook fresh pasta right in front of you, add a sauce, put it in a cup and give you a fork, for 3 Euro. We think it would take off at home.
Oh, we haven't mentioned chocolate yet. Brugge also has a chocolate museum which ...

I saw the film "In Bruges" when it came out at the cinema a couple of years ago, and thought it looked like a beautiful city. So when Annabelle (the teacher in charge of me at school, and a good friend) suggested going for the day, Erin and I jumped at the chance.
The advantage of living so close to the Belgian border is that almost everywhere in Belgium is not much more than an hour away, and so we have no excuse not to see a lot of it!

We arrived in Bruges around 11.30 ...

... by the Cloth hall. A building completely destroyed and burnt to the ground by the Germans but was rebuilt later on and converted into the Flanders Field Museum. We decided to visit the museum and it was defiantly worth it. First of all, Belgium really encourages young people to visit their museums so everyone under 26 years old gets in for 1euro. That's enough incentive for me although we would have gone to this particular museum anyway ...

... the streets towards the windmills. They have a gorgeous walkway and park all along the river with 2 huge windmills. They don’t seem functional but they are surrounded by white fences that have been twisted, the same way lace is, to create a fabulous design. Brugge is known for their lace and this seemed like a nice reminder. We enjoyed the scenery a little bit before making our way back to the campsite.

Next stop Brussels!

... all the sights over the loud speakers

-Following the boat cruise, we went to the Halve Maan Brewery, which brews the famous Brugges Zot, a blonde beer that has won tones of awards, like the World Beer Cup gold medal for the best golden ale. The brewery was filled with narrow, short step staircases that would have been disastrous if they had given us the free beer before the tour, rather than after.

Arrived in Belgium, a nicer town then the capital, at least we think, Brugge! Staying in a world famous hostel, excellent place with nice hard boiled egg breakfasts and with rare pastries. First night here we went on a ...