Hotel Ter Kase Ostende

... place where we enjoyed relaxing at night.<br>The highlights for me were the pubs and beer cafes we found thanks to the map where I attempted to try as many different beers as possible. After 3 days I had managed quite a few.The pubs included tiny local bars hidden in alleyways and pubs boasting the number of beersthey had available. One in particular held the guinness record a few years ago at around 2000 types but today ...

... who take them! This city was similar to Ghent but far more touristy.<br><br>So, I have waited until now, this very moment to discuss my own personal highlight from Holland. To some its the pot in Amsterdam, to others it is the Red Light Districts in the city, to me it is the french fry stands strewn about all the cities here. This is the culmination of all of the fry stands. In Brugge there is an actual fry museum. Yes for 5 ...

... sister Bec! We spent the rest of the day with them, wandering around, saw the wizzing girl, ate choc strawberries (sooooo yum), had hot chocolates, visited HEAPS of chocolate shops, and then went back to their hotel room for a bit before heading out for dinner. Apparently they are famous for their mussels, so Jac, Bec and I shared a big bucket of them and then had some pasta. Turns out I had a BAAAD mussel, or my stomach just really doesn&#8217;t like them, because I ...

... relationship with your beer!&#8217; Very funny!<br><br>After the brewery tour we went to visit the diamond museum where I hoped to see some really big rocks, but I was severely disappointed. All of the big diamonds in there were replicas. We did have a chance to learn a bit more about diamonds though, apparently Brugge was a big diamond polishing town at one stage, hence the museum. We also had a chance to examine diamonds for the four c&#8217;s, cut, clarity, colour and carat ...

... start on my way to Bruges in the morning.<br><br>The trip to Bruges by train takes about an hour, and the scenery was nice. Splurged on a taxi to the hotel (10 Euro) and I&#8217;m glad I did. This town is a little maze of tiny winding medieval streets. Got settled in and the hotel gave me a map. Rested a bit and struck out on my own. The town is amazing. I think it&#8217;s the best place I&#8217;ve been yet and I&#8217;m here for three ...

... more (what else would we do?) we sat down at Bocca, an Italian restaurant that serves pasta in takeout Chinese container lookalikes. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was some of the best 5 euros I have ever spent &#8211; the homemade sauce was absolutely delicious! We liked it so much that we are planning to write to Europe on a Budget and recommend it. Seriously, it was that good. <br><br>To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

... person we had met. He was very helpful, told us where all the important things were and told us where to get the best fries and with the best sauce. Stoofvlees. Like a beef stew on top of fries. It was delicious! Great recommendation! We at these a couple times while we were in bruges. <br><br>So, off to explore this beautiful city. We first took a canal tour. There are canals ...

... just walked towards the beach. Sun was shining and sky blue, like today, and it was the first day since I landed in Belgium. This was good omen! A few photos on the way to the beach... Before mass tourism and all the coastal buildings the coast was all looking like this So when people complain about wild construction in other countries, where they ...

... war paraphernalia including rifles with the bullets still in the chamber (indicating they were left over from a casualty). We went to the largest British War Cemetary at Tyne Cot. It contains nearly 12,000 graves, of which 85% were never identified and the headstone just reads "A Soldier of the Great War". It was unreal walking through the cemetery, realizing that an entire generation was wiped out by the fighting. Probably the greatest tragedy ...

... beautiful piece. After that we left. We actually did drive through Brussels on accident, so Josh has seen some busy corners of the city now. We drove back watching the sunset, eating chocolate (while we were on this trip I was off the wedding dress diet). The entire trip wasn't terribly expensive (luckily for me, since I treated Josh to this one--I owe him one). We had a very good time, wandering around a romantic city for a weekend.