Olympia Brugge

... for the day.Ghent is a nice place with an amazing central area full of churches and imposing buildings.Unfortunately the entire area was under construction so it didn't have the same effect.<br>Brussels was larger than the other cities, and we picked up a similar local map to visit thehidden gems on offer.<br>(Whitney)<br>Bruges is a really lovely city, enclosed by a river that runs around and through it which results in ...

... 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 ...

Megg and I arrived in icy Bruges in the arvo, and after finding our hostel went for a walk to see the sites. It's kind of like Cesky Krumlov in that it&#8217;s pretty small and there isn&#8217;t actually much to do apart from admire the ancient buildings and canals. We saw the 'Belfry Tower&#8217; in the main Markt square, but it was a rip-off to walk up the 300 and something stairs (I&#8217;m not paying &#8364;8 unless there is a lift!), so we just looked at it. There ...

... waffles. My friend and I split a banana, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup-doused waffle, which was completely gone in about the span of 49 seconds. Our other friend got up from the table for a split second and basically missed the entire thing. After we scraped off all the leftover powdered sugar and chocolate sauce on the plate, and drank the rest of the sauce in its cup (I&#8217;m sad to say, that is totally true), we were ready to head off again.

... 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 ...

... have to wait a while at the train station. But when I got the beer it was another ½ liter! It was a mistake&#8212;the waiter had ordered a small beer. But he let me keep it. So I ended up having to hurry to catch the 7:30 pm train, but I made it with a few minutes to spare.<br><br>When I got back to Brussels, I went to the hostel and called my parents and brother for our last Skype session of the trip. It was hard to believe I&#8217;d be going home in 5 days! After we were ...

... time because his feet are double the size of mine. Nearing the top of the tower, the path was very narrow, you had to hold a rope so that you wouldn't fall. I didn't know what time it was so the whole time I was up there I was afraid that the church bells were going to ring (I was standing right beside them as I enjoyed my view of the city).<br><br>Brugges is cute and pretty, but one night spent there is enough.

... of stuff that we had collected since Innsbruck.. I had been carrying my pack as well as a shopping bag full of stuff for the past couple of weeks as we traveled from pace to place, so wanted to lighten the load a bit.. Well, we got rid of almost 5kg of stuff and ended up about 25 Euros lighter in the wallet also.. So after gathering our packs again, we headed to the train station to catch the train to Brugge, a once World Heritage ...

... so bad at one point that we had to use the hair dryer to dry our clothes!). We made it to a tour of De Halve Man Brewery-the only beer brewed in Bruges. The beer was good, the tour was good too. Very authentic feel to it it, especially when compared to the Heineken tour. We were up and down narrow steps, on the roof, near the working tanks, etc. Naturally, we enjoyed some beer after the tour. Hard to go wrong ...

... pattern of lace was left behind. She was known as the TGV (which stands for the fast train that runs between Brussels and Paris). One day, we went to the Begijnhf. A courtyard with beautiful willow trees and blooming daffodils. Peaceful. We saw the Michelangelo Virgin and Child in smooth white marble at the Church of Our Lady. Later we would sit in the sun and try mussels at Vivaldi. This episode stays with us to this day. My perspective: "Hmmm, we're in Belgium ...