Bruges Scandic Brugge

... bit bigger than Bruges and has a similar feel to it. Brussels has a nice centre square, streets full of restaurants, and a royal palace. <br>Each day we returned to Bruges and wandered around the city. The centre market square is beautiful at night- all little buildings in a row all lit up. It would look beautiful with snow I would imagine. We strolled along the canals and popped into little pubs for a drink and had a great time.

In Brugge...that's like a movie title and everything, but there I was actually In Brugge. It is as beautiful and magical as everyone says it is. It's as if Disneyland bought a city, tore it down, and put this in its place. There are canals, and swans that swim in them. There are large medieval buildings that are lit at night and tons of shops filled with sweets and handmade lace. There are men who drive horse drawn carriages and ...

... a really really bad stomach ache from them &#8211; knives stabbing me type pain. So that kinda killed the night unfortunately, I wasn&#8217;t sure if I was going to start feeling sick or what, so Megg and I headed back to Bruges (don&#8217;t worry I was fine though!). Note to self DON&#8217;T EAT BRUSSELS MUSSELS.<br><br>Jac and Bec came to Bruges for the day, so we met them for breakfast (I had a pancake!) before we headed off to our final backpacking destination - Paris!

... and asked if I wanted to come into the cockpit and meet the pilots. I said no (how even more embarrassing!!) but she persuaded me to follow her in there. <br><br>She introduced me to the pilots and they were so nice. The Captain told me he used to fly Airbuses but he actually preferred flying these &#8216;Dash&#8217; planes as they handled the turbulence and everything so much better. The plane itself was only actually 7 years old. The Captain had been flying for 15 years ...

... into a chocolate store and get free samples during a chocolate-making presentation. By this point, I had introduced everyone in our group to the VanAcker family-style vacation, so we had walked basically over the entire area of Bruges and seen everything our Bible/Europe on a Budget had listed. For dinner, we were planning to eat at a place called the Hobbit (right next door to Tolkein &#8211; this place is great for nerds), but after walking around ...

So, We got up and caught a train to Bruges. As we walked towards our hostel I noticed that everything was so nice and so clean. Then we made it to the fountains. I fell in love then. The houses and buildings are so cute. They are side to side with neat little rooftops. The streets were stone and curvy. It was just so nice. <br><br>When we got to our hostel the guy working was by far the ...

Two weeks is not enough time to see everything I want to see. I decide since it is getting near the end of my trip, I better make some decisions and what I really want to do. I know there is a medieval town just outside of Antwerp, but then there is the unbelievable town of Brugge.<br><br>Brugge, just keeps calling me. So I ...

Let it be known that if I ever come in possession of a royal palace, either through a forgotten pedigree, fair purchase or dumb luck it would be ornate, interesting and all together awe-inspiring. Or in other words, everything the Belgian Palace isn't. Maybe King Albert II enjoys the ability to play squash in every room of his residence or maybe the Belgium's EU contributions have consumed the royal furniture budget, but for ...

... is the only Michaelangelo statue outside of Italy. The church was huge and free!! We then went to the Groening Museum. I was a little disappointed as it was rated very highly in the guide book. I guess I am not a museum kind of person. Then we went and saw the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Inside the church is a vial that is said to contain the blood of Jesus Christ. It was brought to Brugge during the Crusades (tells you how old the church ...

... been robbed so we just left it that way and exited the metro ourselves on the next stop. The metro ended up being more of a tram and when we exited we were standing on an overpass of a major highway not knowing what to do. We spotted another stop a few hundred yards away and headed there to see what we could find out. It was the correct stop for the tram heading back, so we waited. While waiting a few buses ...