Grand Hotel George V Ostende

(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 ...

... 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 ...

... that we let them know our arrival time a month before &#8211; whoops! Hadn&#8217;t done that! We were staying in another B&amp;B so I hoped they were going to be home.<br><br>Our walk from the station was really pretty along a tree lined canal. We found our accommodation on a dead end street on it&#8217;s own opposite the canal. It was a really pretty spot. <br><br>We rang the bell and there was no answer &#8211; whoops! I started going through my phone trying to find their ...

... start on my way to Bruges in the morning.<br><br>The trip to Bruges by train takes about an hour, and the scenery was nice. Splurged on a taxi to the hotel (10 Euro) and I&#8217;m glad I did. This town is a little maze of tiny winding medieval streets. Got settled in and the hotel gave me a map. Rested a bit and struck out on my own. The town is amazing. I think it&#8217;s the best place I&#8217;ve been yet and I&#8217;m here for three ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... our journey back to the train station in earnest. The station was an easy walk with our new found energy and we began to meet more and more people that we knew from the ship. Back to track 8b and a short wait was all that was needed for us to board the train for the ride back to Blankenberg where the ship's shuttle bus was waiting to return us to the White Lady. It was a great day that allowed us to enjoy this time capsule of the medieval ages thru the Renaissance. Bruges ...

... world wide to make everyone think that the Netherlands has more windmills than people. The reality is, this is the only place that I have seem multiple windmills in one space of area, but it's not uncommon to see the ancient windmills churning their way throughout the country. They were beautiful and worth seeing. Anyway, I'm back in Amsterdam now. Will update on that later (with photo's hopefully), so that's it for now.

... view and then we headed over to have a bit of a boat trip through the canals and then a nice lunch before a little bit of shopping (of beer of course) before heading back to the hostel and back onto the bus....this time the heating was supposed to have been fixed. and hit the round back to London