Hotel Azaert Annex Blankenberge

... window on the way, listening to my ipod looking out the window. By the time I got out of the train at Brugges, and walked along countless other tourists (insane, and this is WINTER), the sun had peeked out a bit.

By the time I was walking into the main historical center, I had beautiful weather. Nice rays of sunshine giving me some beautiful lighting for pictures and just admiring the beauty of ...

Today was a many miles day - around 500 in fact, or about 800km! We all met up in a carpark on the outskirts of Macon, then travelled in convoy north. As we were travelling such a long way today, we all decided to use the motorways, as despite being toll roads and meaning we'd see a bit less scenery, it was well worth it as we'd get to stop for longer on the way and get there earlier. The tolls were quite expensive compared to what I'm used to (it cost us about 21 Euros/NZ$42 for the ...

... at the end.
We also toured the local De Halv Maans brewery, which offered good views at the top and pretty good beer. And we found the newest idea in take out--fast food pasta! They cook fresh pasta right in front of you, add a sauce, put it in a cup and give you a fork, for 3 Euro. We think it would take off at home.
Oh, we haven't mentioned chocolate yet. Brugge also has a chocolate museum which ...

I saw the film "In Bruges" when it came out at the cinema a couple of years ago, and thought it looked like a beautiful city. So when Annabelle (the teacher in charge of me at school, and a good friend) suggested going for the day, Erin and I jumped at the chance.
The advantage of living so close to the Belgian border is that almost everywhere in Belgium is not much more than an hour away, and so we have no excuse not to see a lot of it!

We arrived in Bruges around 11.30 ...

... has been preserved. After our nice walk through there we walked to the more modern area of the town and discovered a separate square with the most unusual statues in a fountain. It seemed to greatly contrast the medieval feel of the city and was almost shocking. We enjoyed them greatly though and took some pictures with the ducky of course!

After spending some time sitting at the steps in the market square we made our way up ...

... English detective show or something. We had a great night out and ran back to the hostel in the rain.
We walked all around the town and saw little parks and local areas to the north of the town where people actually live. Around town there are heaps of chocolate shops and even a TinTin shop! The clothing stores are all fancy and there are mouth-watering pink-decorated candy stores.
Our visit to Ghent was nice too. It is ...

... is another cute little bar. So after we ate we went across the street and had a couple beers. We also saw our tour guide from earlier that day there.

The next day it was rainy but we walked around the city anyway. It was just too cute to not explore. We walked to the edge of town and saw the dutch windmills then walked back into town for some chocolate and went on a shopping ...

... noise...seems to come from the propeller... Frank, who did dismantle the complete engine starts to imagine all kind of scenarios and looks quite worried...

At last, we go past Zeebrugge, see the Blankenberge lights, reach the breakwaters, and finally, are in calm water to do the few last meters towards our berth.

I feel exhausted. Tomorrow, no clock in the morning, we will rest and to Frank check will get into the water with his diving mask and fins to check the propeller.

... vocational day for Walter, seeing this massive engineering project in real life. The engineering principles were quite straight forward and logical, but the enormity of it was hard to comprehend. For a country at threat of virtual extinction if it didn't manage its water flows, the Delta Works are essential for the future of the Netherlands. Also as a result of the construction, there are large sandy ...

September 14 I left even more early around 4am on the morning of August 14 to go direct to the Nederland and Walcheren Island. Sadly the weather wasn't as nice and it got cloudy but at least enough warm to be outside. I needed to tank the car again and noticed that my bankcontact wasnt working in the Nederland waaaaaaaahhh I reached an open station on the highway just in time when the light of the reservoir went on!!! ouffff! Once I reached the ...