Hotel Princess Ostende

... English detective show or something. We had a great night out and ran back to the hostel in the rain.<br>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.<br>Our visit to Ghent was nice too. It is ...

... here. "A church!" you say. I know I know you would think that i got my fill of churches in Italy and Spain however I have not been to the church that boasts to be the proud owners of a vile of Christ's actual blood! Yep you read correctly, they claim that they house the DNA and blood of Christ. Now, I'm no doctor, I gave that dream up a while ago, but I'm pretty sure that 2000 year old blood would have evaporated by now. But ...

... 1st original beer was invented there, it tasted like ****.<br><br>We had to walk around looking for another hostel the next day &#8211; ours was all booked, so after doing that we decided to go ultra-touristy and go on a boat ride! Apparently the boat driver was speaking English, but we couldn&#8217;t understand a word he was saying, so we just sat back, enjoyed the view and took heaps of photos because we are tourists and that&#8217;s what tourists do. After that we ...

... to be accessible and still functioning. On our arrival at the windmills we found this to be untrue, but they were still pretty to look at so we decided that the pub opposite was a good place to stop for lunch.<br><br>After lunch it was back into town and time for the brewery tour! There is only one brewery left in Brugge and they run regular tours, you can smell the place before you see it too! <br><br>The lady who ran the tour was funny, she had a dry wit and at first you ...

... my feet and I needed the protein recharge. Snap, snap, snap, snap&#8230;photos done and I&#8217;m done with the Grand Place. Chocolate shops everywhere. Yes, it&#8217;s good. Yes, it&#8217;s better than See&#8217;s. But they&#8217;re in every nook and cranny and you start to feel like you&#8217;re on Mainstreet USA in Disneyland. So I struck out to find the peeing boy statue which is Brussels&#8217; other claim to fame. Through winding ...

... ice cream combination was ridiculously delicious. After that, we continued to the main plaza (where the climax of In Bruges occurred, for those interested &#8211; it was crazy to be where it was filmed!). There, we walked around the bell tower, the Medieval Belfort, and admired all the fantastic architecture, including the beer wall that displayed every beer brewed in Belgium &#8211; a landmark in wall construction, I&#8217;m sure. We skipped lunch ...

... 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.<br><br>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 ...

... looks as we came in. Not surprising really as it was due to close at 2000!!! They offered to let us have a beer anyway but we decided to find a different restaurant. So we sent Phil into the only restaurant that looked open, Phil came back to advise it was open till 2200. Bill and Phil ordered spaghetti , I had steak+chips. All very French , HaHa!!! Just as we sat down ( under cover luckily ) it started to rain and then it poured and poured , it went on all night.

... trip, after here heading to Ireland, then France, Switzerland and Italy. Who knows, I might run into them again in one of the latter 3 countries (saving Ireland for a future trip). Today, I took a guided tour of the battlefields of World War I, titled "Fields of Flanders". It was a very well done tour that lasted from 9:15 AM to 5:00 PM. We drove all around the Ypres Salient, the area where the British, French, Belgians, and Canadians (and eventually ...

... Josh and took a bunch of photos of the Belfort and the moon. (The city is very photogenic.) We ate a Flemish dinner, walked around the city, and retired for the day. The next morning we took a canal tour around the city. It took us past St John's hospital, which was built in the 12th century and used as a medical center until 1978. The tour goes through some of the prettiest canals in the city. Very romantic, despite the cold on the ...