Hotel Louisa Oostende

I slept really well last night at Johanna's place (yes, I promise to make entries -even if they're short- for past days/cities). Then this morning I took the bus under a light drizzle to the Ghent main train station. There I paid my 6.6 Euros for a round trip (weekend price) to Brugges (Brugge/Brujas), which I had heard so much about.

I had quite the positive attitude, even as the rain fell against my ...

... part where there was 3 in a row! They all sold some amazingly presented food and after making some purchases we went for a quick walk around another church (I'm not religious, but I love looking through all the old, well built and presented buildings!).

On the way back to Calais, we went via Ypres, a city which was completely demolished during World War 1. The two main buildings in the centre of the city both ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... towns had 20 names while others had hundreds. In Ypres there was a large arch that led the way into the center of town. Upon closer inspection this arch is covered in all the names of all the soldiers who fought to keep Ypres free from the Germans occupation. It was November 8th so when we went to the arch there were already many poppy wreaths for the upcoming Remembrance Day.

The town of Ypres is small but its town square is looked ...

We made our way from Gouda to Brugge. Brugge is a beautiful town that holds a lot of its older architecture and feel. With its canals and its medieval buildings it is a great town to spend the day exploring and taking pictures. Once again a drizzly day we lucked out and managed to get a few hours of sunshine to take out our cameras.

Our campsite was about 15 minutes out of town so we took a bus that took us directly to the city ...

... age children in their teens were given free entry to most of the attractions of the city. Completely surrounding the square are large buildings with tall facades of a multitude of bright colors. In the center is a large statue that serves as the logical center of the city. On another side of the square is the belfry tower which is the tallest structure in town. Just 360 steps up a steep stairway will take a person to the tallest viewpoint of the city. From there you can ...

... All for 100g of a can of tiny shrimp! Nice to know Americans aren't the only stupidly wasteful people... On our return to Brussles, we stopped through the coastal town (oooh la mer!) of Le Coq, referred to as Disneyworld by any self-respecting Belgian thanks to its epcot centre feel of the architecture in the area. Some is the original and has just been cleaned up, but others are re-makes à la Dresden, and some just look like the ridiculous touristy Belgiany ...

... We stopped at a flea market on the canal, had lunch, and then hiked 370 steps up the Belfort to get a view of the entire city and the nearby areas. There are arrows pointing to the direction of other cities in Belgium, the other two Benelux countries, France, and Germany. We stopped in a fine chocolate shop to get some souvenirs (about one kilo worth). Belgian chocolate really is the best chocolate in the world. And I've looked. We ...