Hotel Rubens Ostende

... 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. <br>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.

... I'm wrong. Who knows? (Probably historians, or doctors shh.) <br><br>That's it, I got on a train and headed back to Amsterdam for the night. It was a whirlwind trip through Belgium but so has the rest of this trip so why would this be any different. <br><br>Oh I did stop in Antwerp and had a Belgian waffle. I had three bites and threw it away it was so sweet. But I'm sure everyone else would love it. <br><br>Update soon!<br><br>Dina

... around a bit more and got lunch at a cheap Italian restaurant. We were cold and freezing and cold and sick of sightseeing, so we went back to the hostel for an afternoon nap &#8211; we really miss siestas! Our evening was pretty quiet too &#8211; Bruges isn&#8217;t exactly a party capital.<br><br>Day trip to Brussels! We caught the train to Brussels, and after about 1 hour we had walked around the touristy bit, seen the main square and the statue of the little boy ...

... she was going to recite the whole thing in the one tone and never smile. Then she cracked her first joke and you wondered whether it was deliberate until you saw the twinkle in her eye and the slight upturn in the corner of her mouth. At the end of each section she then had to repeat her spiel in French for the group behind us so she instructed us in her thick accent to &#8216;go to the next spot and there, wait for me&#8217;. In one part of the tour you need to duck quite a bit as ...

... and I see some people crowded around a corner and there it is. All 18" of it. Is that it? And somebody dressed him up in a little costume&#8230;.snap. What now? I decided to locate Central Station first because I was leaving for Bruges from there, then walked to the "Upper Town&#8221; where the museums and palace is. One thing I can say for Brussels, and Belgium in general so far, is that they&#8217;ve got art placed everywhere in ...

... waffles really were great), and went to De Halve Mann, the only brewery still working in Bruges. After a tour of the brewery, which led me to reminisce about me being Dad&#8217;s underage basement-beer-brewing apprentice, we were entitled to a free sample of the blond beer brewed on-site.<br><br>After our tasty beverage, we continued our tour of Bruges. There are a ridiculous amount of lace and chocolate shops around, and we were lucky enough to ...

... for beer and the corresponding glasses...because every beer in Belgium has a specific glass that you are supposed to drink it from. We spent as much time as we could in Bruges before we had to head back to Brussels to catch our plane and we still needed more time in Brussels to meet up with a friend from Clemson. I was sad to leave Bruges. It was definitely an amazing place to visit. <br>

... accident on the sea motorway, there's one almost everytime I take it, so I was forced to take a smaller road and it took 3 hours to get there. Belgian tend to speed on motorway. When I'm at the limit + 10, i.e. 130 km/h everyone is passing me by, probably around 150-160. I know I've been speeding myself a lot too so I don't throw the stone. You get ...

... managed to hold the town of Ypres. The fighting was incredibly atrocious trench warfare, and was the first time that poison gas was used. It culminated in the Battle of Passchendaele, which produced over 300,000 casualties for the British. Unbelievable. They would spend 10s of thousands of lives just to gain a few hundred yards of territory, only to lose it a few months later. And this went on for nearly 4 years. We went right into the area ...

... 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 ...