Best Western Hotel Imprerial Ostende

... sauce, both delicious). Yes, we really fit in well there and enjoyed our time. We used the map to discover really cute little pubs, including one that is the oldest in Bruges. You enter through a door off a tiny street and go up some internal stairs until you reach, what I presume, was someone's living room at one point. People have been coming to this place to drink beer since 1515. We met up with a young couple from Texas ...

... who take them! This city was similar to Ghent but far more touristy.<br><br>So, I have waited until now, this very moment to discuss my own personal highlight from Holland. To some its the pot in Amsterdam, to others it is the Red Light Districts in the city, to me it is the french fry stands strewn about all the cities here. This is the culmination of all of the fry stands. In Brugge there is an actual fry museum. Yes for 5 ...

... about a million chocolate shops, so we spent the rest of the day going in and out of them with watering mouths &#8211; so much yummy chocolate EVERYWHERE! I did a free walking tour in the eve with all the clothes I own on &#8211; Megg was too cold and couldn&#8217;t go outside! I&#8217;m sure I learnt lots of interesting things.. All I can remember is that Beer was invented in the middle ages because water was too dirty to drink. But I learnt that in Prague &#8211 ...

... talking basically. It was something to look at for a minute!<br><br>At the beer shop we had a chat to the guy behind the counter and he told us that the tv show had shut down the whole street a couple of weeks earlier to film a scene!<br><br>We grabbed a couple of bottles of beer each and went and pulled up a piece of canal bank to sit on. It was a nice spot near where we had eaten dinner the night before. Of course no sooner had we put the beers down did I managed to knock Witek ...

... my feet and I needed the protein recharge. Snap, snap, snap, snap&#8230;photos done and I&#8217;m done with the Grand Place. Chocolate shops everywhere. Yes, it&#8217;s good. Yes, it&#8217;s better than See&#8217;s. But they&#8217;re in every nook and cranny and you start to feel like you&#8217;re on Mainstreet USA in Disneyland. So I struck out to find the peeing boy statue which is Brussels&#8217; other claim to fame. Through winding ...

... cobbled streets, red shingled roofs, canals, and historic buildings. <br><br>We first walked to Bruge's cathedral, which was still great to see despite all the cathedrals that I&#8217;ve been to already. We then headed toward the main plaza along with the bunches of other tourists flocking around Bruges. On the way, we had our first truly Belgian experience: waffles. Needless to say, I was ridiculously excited, and my waffle-chocolate sauce ...

... person we had met. He was very helpful, told us where all the important things were and told us where to get the best fries and with the best sauce. Stoofvlees. Like a beef stew on top of fries. It was delicious! Great recommendation! We at these a couple times while we were in bruges. <br><br>So, off to explore this beautiful city. We first took a canal tour. There are canals ...

... it is big, imposing and impressive looking, inside it is quiet and pretty religious looking. The floors had grilles in many places, giving hints to a lower level filled with serial killers, ghosts or The Knights Templar, depending whether you watch films or have an imagination of your own. The train to Ostend was a little bit cramped, presumably due to the locals seeing the weather and starting the weekend early. We ended up sitting between ...

... diamonds, and as such, most of the diamonds come in and out through Antwerp. I was tempted to ask a local or two if the movie 'Blood Diamond' had come out here yet, but managed to resist... The other weird thing is that Belgium's contribution to environmental probems comes in the form of them fishing for tiny shrimp (you know, the egg roll kind), then sending them to Morocco where cheap labor cleans them up, and then fly them back to Belgium to be consumed ...

... and churches. The real citizens of Brugge live outside of this ring and I imagine that they would have little reason to come inside this ring of tourism. The entire inner city has been kept in a medieval state and supposedly looks the same as it did hundreds of years ago. This is one of the charms of Brugge: when you climb the tower in the centre of the city, you can see all the way out to the moat and the rule for changing your house here is that it must stay the same in appearance ...