Europe Hotel Ostende

... 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.

... I'm wrong. Who knows? (Probably historians, or doctors shh.) <br><br>That's it, I got on a train and headed back to Amsterdam for the night. It was a whirlwind trip through Belgium but so has the rest of this trip so why would this be any different. <br><br>Oh I did stop in Antwerp and had a Belgian waffle. I had three bites and threw it away it was so sweet. But I'm sure everyone else would love it. <br><br>Update soon!<br><br>Dina

Megg and I arrived in icy Bruges in the arvo, and after finding our hostel went for a walk to see the sites. It's kind of like Cesky Krumlov in that it&#8217;s pretty small and there isn&#8217;t actually much to do apart from admire the ancient buildings and canals. We saw the 'Belfry Tower&#8217; in the main Markt square, but it was a rip-off to walk up the 300 and something stairs (I&#8217;m not paying &#8364;8 unless there is a lift!), so we just looked at it. There ...

... take and said to Witek &#8216;Did you see that?&#8217; before looking back out the window. There I saw window after window of scantily clad women! We were going through the red light district of Brussels! I thought that it was only Amsterdam that had this, but I guess Brussels have their piece as well!<br><br>We arrived in Brugge and I pulled out the directions to our accommodation. We weren&#8217;t far from the train station so it was pretty easy but it was then that I noticed the ...

... places. So went to a museum, saw a palace where the king and queen never lived, got lost a little trying to get back and went looking for something to eat. Since I blew the wad on breakfast I thought I&#8217;d eat cheap so I went to Quick, the Euro equivalent of McDonalds. Got a &#8220;Big Bacon&#8221;(not that big), a coke, some Cheesy Balls and a coffee for less than 10 Euro. Then headed back to the hotel and crashed so I could get a ...

We got up early on Saturday morning, took advantage of the free breakfast at the hostel, and then boarded a train to Bruges, Belgium, which is about 45 minutes away from Brussels. I was really excited to go, because I've seen the movie In Bruges, and the architecture was supposed to be gorgeous. And let me tell you, that movie was not filmed on a green screen &#8211; the town was delightful. It was a quaint, quintessential European town &#8211; lots of ...

... for beer and the corresponding glasses...because every beer in Belgium has a specific glass that you are supposed to drink it from. We spent as much time as we could in Bruges before we had to head back to Brussels to catch our plane and we still needed more time in Brussels to meet up with a friend from Clemson. I was sad to leave Bruges. It was definitely an amazing place to visit. <br>

... diet coke. The attendant stood back in comical surprised and said "French!" ; Harriet immediately understood and said, "Sorry, Belgium Fries". He laughed and proceeded to fill our order. Harriet must have made an impression as he gave us catsup instead of mayonnaise. Behind the stand was a small square park with one side of the park full of park benches all lined in a row down the one side of the park.. Here we sat and enjoyed the Belgium Fries and a diet coke. Refreshed we ...

... of stalks, ducks, swans and what not nesting. There's a lot of variety in the bird life, which I guess I noticed because I was on the bike, but interesting all the same. From the Cheese farm I rode further South to Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 19 old wild mills churning away on either side of a canal. No doubt you would have seen these as I think that the pictures of these particular windmills are ...

... some great old buildings dating from when Brugge had its golden age in the 1400 & 1500s. The Bell Tower in the Market Square is one of the tallest structures in the area, and on a clear day you can see the North Sea. As usual, it wasn't hard to find good food, chocolate and beer in Belgium.