Golden Tulip Bero Oostende

(Steve)<br>Belgium was one of those places that wasn't high on our list of things to do but ended upbeing one of our favourites. Staying in Bruges rather than Brussels was probably the reasonbut we also managed to find an assortment of hidden treasures thanks to a helpful local mapmade by locals. Our hostel was called snuffel - the best one in town if you ask. They had a bar that offered 25 different Belgian beers and was a cosy ...

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 ...

... sister Bec! We spent the rest of the day with them, wandering around, saw the wizzing girl, ate choc strawberries (sooooo yum), had hot chocolates, visited HEAPS of chocolate shops, and then went back to their hotel room for a bit before heading out for dinner. Apparently they are famous for their mussels, so Jac, Bec and I shared a big bucket of them and then had some pasta. Turns out I had a BAAAD mussel, or my stomach just really doesn&#8217;t like them, because I ...

Day 1 - Tuesday 22nd September &#8211; We had discovered that it was going to be cheaper and quicker for us to catch a plane to Brussels then a train to Brugge rather than catching a train straight from Munich to Brugge.<br><br>We got to Munich airport and spent some time there wandering around and having a small lunch before we went to our gate. We were flying Brussels Air who I had never heard of but was comfortable with seeing as they are a subsidiary of Lufthansa. <br><br>At our ...

... Little houses on tiny cobblestone streets near big beautiful churches. I stopped on the square and had dinner. What Europeans call a menu is really kind of a set price thing. One from column A, one from column B and a dessert . I started out with a big Leffe beer since I&#8217;m in the land of beer. Then the soup, then a traditional Belgian stew and chocolate mousse for desert. Oh yeah, another small Chimay beer and then coffee. The ...

... more (what else would we do?) we sat down at Bocca, an Italian restaurant that serves pasta in takeout Chinese container lookalikes. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was some of the best 5 euros I have ever spent &#8211; the homemade sauce was absolutely delicious! We liked it so much that we are planning to write to Europe on a Budget and recommend it. Seriously, it was that good. <br><br>To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

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 ...

We stoped at a parking next to another RV. It was getting dark burt we've decided to go to the beach wich supposed to be across the street and through the bushes. We took our flashlight and went into the trees. We saw a group of people heading left but we thought that straight through the bushes would be the fastest way. We were wrong. After 15 minutes of going up ...

... from WWll, Saturday was a Holland Independence remembrance type day. Unlike in NZ where we have ANZAC day and Waitangi day for these type occasions, the Dutch don't take public holidays but the celebrate WWll remembrance with a silent period at 8pm on the day of remembrance, the Queen makes a speech etc. So, it was a nice few days to be in Holland, lots of social things happening within the Dutch community ...

... I walked into the church, which has been brightly decorated and walked up the stairs to where a priest was guarding this vial of blood. He asked me if I knew what it was and then encouraged me to kiss it - I declined: it doesn't seem hygienic to kiss something like that - let alone all the people who have kissed it before me! There is one thing about Brugge that I don't like: the horse drawn carts - it doesn't make sense that they are here and the sound is really irritating. You have ...