Hotel Du Soleil Knokke-Heist

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

... started forming in the 12th century and although they devoted themselves to God and the Catholic Church they were not nuns and were able to marry and keep their property. They eventually changed their beliefs and became more of mystics and were eventually thought to be heretics and were condemned by the church. They have since greatly declined in numbers and the Beguinage in Brugge is no longer functional. It is beautiful though ...

... more like 2500. My favourite beers were de Garre (local speciality sold exclusively at the pub of the same name - Dark flavourful and quite strong), Leffe, Westmalle Trappist, Bruges zot and bok. Whitney even gave in and sipped a few of my beers until we found one she liked!! It was a Raspberry fruity beer that was quite sweet.
Other than beer, we had to indulge in the other Belgian standards: Waffles, chocolate ...

... back on our bikes, back to Middelburg! It was a very nice, but tiring day, so Jessica and I went back to my house to plan our 10 day trip to Spain and watch a movie. Quite fun! Oh, did I mention that I have pink eye? Yes, it's quite terrible to have to wear my glasses everywhere, especially in the ocean. Oh well, I will go to a doctor tomorrow and hopfully get some eye drops to fix it up!

... of those incredible, perspective-granting experiences. I stood in front of it for nearly 3 hours, examining nearly every detail, appreciating every nuance of this fabulous piece of art. I watched and stared after tour group after tour group blew through it in 2 minutes or less. How can someone pass by something like this so carelessly? It was an observation that I found to be a bit ...

... From Belgium we crossed the border to Holland for a few hours. During the journey we passed through some lovely, very flat and green countryside. In Holland we visited the village of Sluis. It's a pretty place with a tree-lined canal and a windmill. There were plenty of tacky touristy shops, with no posh shops to be seen. But, there is one shop that's definitely worth visiting. In this shop they sell clogs. If you see the photo you'll read more information about this.