Hotel Carnac Koksijde

... drizzling quite a bit here in Gent, but that's ok...

Tomorrow I'll try and brave the weather (here's hoping for some more sunshine) around Gent. My last full day in Belgium, since on Monday I take a train out to Dusseldorf, to spend my last night in Germany and Europe with my first hosts. Then, I leave around noon from the Dusseldorf airport to Fort Myers, back in the states. Last 3 days....

After a bit of a hard night, we were all up at about 9am to check out of our hotel and go for a quick wander around Brugge, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Often described as the 'Venice of the North', there are quite a few canals in Brugge, but as we discovered, there's even more chocolate shops - they're everywhere!
We walked down a stretch of road, only about 1km long, and saw about 7-8 chocolate shops, including ...

... fuel in Dijon, which (at least the parts we saw) didn't look all that great, in contrast to the rest of the country which I thought was great.

Our final stop in France was in Metz, where we grabbed lunch, had a quick walk around the markets and I bought a crepe with strawberry jam (delicious). We had a walk through St Stephens Cathedral - a massive church whose construction started in around 1220 and finished in 1520. It is a very spectacular building, incredibly tall and with ...

... went to as well (hey, it was raining the whole time). This was considerably better than the fry museum (although not as funny) and we got a demonstration on how they make the famous Belgian Prailines.
Other than that, our 3 days in Brugge were filled with more choclate, beer, and fries (and one waffle) and admiring what the cute little town has to offer. Now we're off to Amsterdam... wish us luck!

... went for a wander around the Beguinage and the little streets of the city before stopping for lunch in a restaurant on the main square, which was really nice and served local traditional food which was really great.

We wanted to go up the clock-tower but the queue was far too long and we decided that we could go back another day during the week when there weren't so many tourists!

The Christmas market had just started in Bruges so we spent quite a while wandering ...

We went to Ypres on the suggestion of my dad. Ypres is located in Flanders and was a central battle ground during WWI. The town of Ypres seemed to be right in the midst of the fight and was almost completely destroyed in bombings and fires. It is also in this area that the battles of Pashchendale took place. It was one of the most deadly and greusomome places to fight in WWI and many young Canadians lost their lives there.

We got a ...

... the streets towards the windmills. They have a gorgeous walkway and park all along the river with 2 huge windmills. They don’t seem functional but they are surrounded by white fences that have been twisted, the same way lace is, to create a fabulous design. Brugge is known for their lace and this seemed like a nice reminder. We enjoyed the scenery a little bit before making our way back to the campsite.

Next stop Brussels!

... bit bigger than Bruges and has a similar feel to it. Brussels has a nice centre square, streets full of restaurants, and a royal palace.
Each day we returned to Bruges and wandered around the city. The centre market square is beautiful at night- all little buildings in a row all lit up. It would look beautiful with snow I would imagine. We strolled along the canals and popped into little pubs for a drink and had a great time.

... means she was a little bit worried, and after 20 min she removed the needles. Well anyway, this worked just fine! I started planning my evening and walking around. I went to see my cousin in Genval around 9 pm, and we had quite a nice chat. Then my sister arrived from France around 11 pm, so I stayed and chatted some more with her. Not such an interesting beginning of the week in terms of adventures. The most beautiful pictures are from the dark clouds.

This morning was another quick look around the city of Brugge. Its apparently the a bit of a little Venice...although being that I havent been to Venice yet am not sure, but it was a lovely day and Nadia and I had fun wandering around. First stop was a trek to the top of the bell tower to check out ...