Grand Hotel George V Ostende

... br>We took in the sights on our way and I immediately loved the place. It is a gorgeous little town, full of cobblestone streets and canals, almost like a mini Venice and without the tourists.

We got our water and some Belgian chocolate and made our way back to our accommodation to sort out dinner. The owners, Kevin and Tiny, recommended a small restaurant near them where they said that they ate regularly so we went to check it out.

It was a nice place with a bar, a ...

... and Child by Leonardo Da Vinci is housed – the “pointy church” from the movie. I may get lost again. In this town, that’s not so bad.

Off the wall observations: It seems that the Italians make the American look like seasoned, sophisticated tourists. They’re everywhere, they’re loud, and you definitely don’t want them in line in front of you. They’ll take a half hour arguing with ...

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 – the town was delightful. It was a quaint, quintessential European town – lots of ...

... a lazy night at the Inn and another wonderful breakfast, we shouldered our packs and took another jaunt through the city. We decided to burn a little more time at the brewery and after a couple beers got back to the train and started to head home. Unfortunately, those last beers caused us to miss the early trains to Germany and that is why we got back to Berlin so late. But there are worse places to be stranded than in Belgium.


-AF

First thing, we went on the essential canal cruise which was a different way of seeing what we had seen the day before and learn a bit more about it. Again we came across the fleamarket and the chocolate moulds I had looked at the day before had been reduced in price so I saw that as a sign and bought 2 matching ones. After checking out the restaurants, we decided to go back to our favourite sandwich shop and of course, our favourite patisserie for dessert. We have ...

I looked out of our attic window and saw the famous Brugge white swans swimming down the canal as if they were arriving in time for the weekend tourists.

Greg had a bad cold and wasn't well, so he and the girls had a quiet morning supposedly doing homework, while I went chocolate shop touring.

You would not believe how many chocolate shops there are in Brugge and how much chocolate they had. I heard one ...

Friday 25th September

Greg woke up not feeling very well. We went down to the breakfast room for the included breakfast and I was expecting maybe a pastry and coffee, but was pleasantly surprised that there was cereal, fruit & yoghurt, cheese, ham, bread rolls, pastries, boiled eggs, juices and hot drinks.

The weather was a bit chilly in the morning (6 C) but it warmed up to 18 C very quickly. Greg put on a brave face and we called into the Basilica of the Holy ...

From Elegant Paris to Bitter Beer Belgium and Bruges Bruges is history frozen in time. The inlet to Bruges' harbor was silted over, which left its industries to slowly die, but kept its buildings and culture free from modernizing. It is best described as a charming place. We were excited to leave the bustling inner city and refined metro system of Paris to enter a ...

... was No-Man's Land 90 years ago. Today, it's all been rebuilt and is covered with farms, but it's estimated at the effects of the war will linger for another 100 years. This is because over 1 billion shells were dropped on the area, and an estimated 1/3 of them never exploded. Every year, many hundreds of shells are discovered as farmers plow their fields, and several people are still killed each year as a result. They showed us a bunch of shells and ...

... court of almshouses with a quiet inner garden. The convent was inhabited then by the Beguines, a catholic order of unmarried or widowed women from wealthy families that took it upon themselves to look after the elderly. The serenity of the place was otherworldly, and I felt as if time had stood still whilst I was there. It didn't, and before long I had to make the trip back to Brussels for the night, but not before exhausting the memory in my camera!