Hotel Adagio Knokke-Zoute

... city. Awesome architecture and canals winding around the city, as I took tons of pictures as always and just enjoyed the city.

Apparently Brugges had a movie made recently with it as a location; I'll have to check it out sometime. The main "art" piece I saw was a Madonna with Child from -the- Michaelangelo from Italy. It was quit nice, as were the countless other paintings and sculptures I saw in that ...

... riding the bus with my huge backpack. Things always seem tougher and the rides longer when I have to haul it around with me. I won't miss it that much, I'm afraid. Anyways, it was acutally only about a 10 minute bus ride to the area where Johanna lives,and I found her apartment right away.

I greeted her and we had some really nice conversation, and she made some delicious ...

... on the final 3 or so hours of our trip to Brugge near the coast. We were a little late arriving....we were supposed to meet up at 7:30pm for the awards ceremony at 8pm, but we didn't make it to the bar until 9:30 - oops! We received our medals and bottle of cheap wine for finishing, then went off to find some dinner.
As it was now past 10:30 we had to go for the first restaurant we could find, and we went to a place selling Argentinian food of all things! I'd never had ...

Brugge may be a fairy tale city, but the thing they don't tell you is that the whole place smells like french fries! The Flemish like to fry everything from meat to fries to waffles...twice. When we arrived in town, we had JUST missed the beer festival (of course) that had taken place all weekend long. So we did the next best thing, and went to a pub that serves the most Belgian beer. 't Brugge was ...

... the market and the shops and then went on a boat ride which was fantastic, after which we went to a tea-room which claimed to have the best hot chocolate in town, and it was really good! It was incredibly sickly though and gave both Erin and I a headache for the ride home!

Altogether a really fun day out in Bruges, truffles bought, Belgian food eaten and Belgian alcohol drunk, and Belgian chocolate drunk! This is another place where we will definitely be returning!!

... The Grote Markt (Big Town Square) was huge and surrounded by cafes and gorgeous buildings such as the city hall. Many cities we've been to have similar squares with some being much more exceptional then others, Brugge included. We walked around the city, passing over the canals and peering into the churches. We went into the Beguinage in the city which was once owned by the Benguines who you could say were the first feminists. Their ...

... sauce, both delicious). Yes, we really fit in well there and enjoyed our time. We used the map to discover really cute little pubs, including one that is the oldest in Bruges. You enter through a door off a tiny street and go up some internal stairs until you reach, what I presume, was someone's living room at one point. People have been coming to this place to drink beer since 1515. We met up with a young couple from Texas ...

... person we had met. He was very helpful, told us where all the important things were and told us where to get the best fries and with the best sauce. Stoofvlees. Like a beef stew on top of fries. It was delicious! Great recommendation! We at these a couple times while we were in bruges.

So, off to explore this beautiful city. We first took a canal tour. There are canals that ...

... the train. Little Henry is in love with Abigail. Zoe told me that everyone at day care knows all about Abigail. So cute. We played Uno and one of the Haba travel games, this one with the bananas, monkeys and coconuts. It was about 1.5 hours but the time passed well. Once in Brugges we walked the streets sort of uncertain of our final destination. The streets were so pretty with brick houses everywhere with the typical Flemish steps along the roof line. We wandered to the Onze Lieve ...

... The complexion of the city has changed completely now and I think I like it. Going to the markets, perusing fruit and other nice food in a lazy and disorderly fashion: can't complain. My French, Spanish and Dutch skills have improved too: from 0% to about 0.5% haha. I can now say that I don't speak any of these languages (plus a few more things) in every tongue. I feel sort of cultured... I have been helping one of my workmates, Xavier, come up with a plan for ...