Hotel De Castillion Brugge

... 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....

Today I said goodbye to rainy, rainy Bruxelles, and took the half hour train (8 euros) to Gent/Ghent, where I met up with my first host ever, Johanna. She was the first couchsurfer to welcome me into her home back in 2007, after I had finished my year in South Korea, in Beijing.

- Before going to Ghent, I actually made a stop in the Musical Instruments Museum in Bruxelles ...

... soldier'. Again, it was pretty sobering, seeing all these graves.

We managed to all get completely soaked today, and it was freezing cold and windy as well, so it wasn't particularly comfortable. After that, it was back to Calais, stopping at one more of the massive French hypermarkets for a few souvenir pieces of food, then back onto the ferry back to Dover.

So, that was the Crumball Rally over! We did ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... 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!

... house for the next couple of days. More time exploring in the afternoon then another celebration dinner for Brendan in a magnificent outdoor setting at the Cafeedral.
Sunday we were back in tourist mode making the most of our last day in Bruges..again will upload some photos soon. Apologies also re lack of emails and Blogs..either no internet access or weak signals...still can't get emails out though they are coming in.

... of dizzy from going around and around in circles on those stairs, and our legs felt kind of weird too, but we shook it off and kept exploring Brugge. We went into a few chocolate shops... which was delicious! They are everywhere... probably every other or every third store on some streets are chocolate shops! There are also a lot of lace shops, because Brugge is where lace was invented. We just did some random shopping, which was fun. I only bought chocolate ...

... a beautiful, romantic little medieval town, which could possibly be described as a mix between Amsterdam and Venice, with many channels or waterways and stone bridges. Many houses are protected for historic preservation and the owners are not allowed to make any changes to the facade. Our initial impression of this little gem was confirmed by climbing the 366 stept clock tower, Belford, for a view over the town. Further ...

... first sat down in the room with the bar, but we moved to the restaurant side. We had apparently crashed some kind of anniversary party. The party included about 10 locals and 8 bottles of uncorked champagne that they were focused on finishing. On top of this, they had hired an accordion player to play all sorts of drinking songs. They were super into it and started polka dancing around the bar. Good party. There was an adorable pub puppy ...