Pantheon Palace Blankenberge

... city. Awesome architecture and canals winding around the city, as I took tons of pictures as always and just enjoyed the city.

Apparently Brugges had a movie made recently with it as a location; I'll have to check it out sometime. The main "art" piece I saw was a Madonna with Child from -the- Michaelangelo from Italy. It was quit nice, as were the countless other paintings and sculptures I saw in that ...

... driving) but the motorways were so good - 3 lanes each way, hardly any traffic at all, and really smooth. The motorways in France have a speed limit of 130kph in the dry, and 110kph in the wet, so either way they were faster and more direct than the meandering country roads with a 90kph limit.

Part of the way along, we came across team Les Pompiers, and they drove past us waving our aerial at us! We soon caught up and received it back though...at about 130kph!

We stopped ...

... went to as well (hey, it was raining the whole time). This was considerably better than the fry museum (although not as funny) and we got a demonstration on how they make the famous Belgian Prailines.
Other than that, our 3 days in Brugge were filled with more choclate, beer, and fries (and one waffle) and admiring what the cute little town has to offer. Now we're off to Amsterdam... wish us luck!

... the market and the shops and then went on a boat ride which was fantastic, after which we went to a tea-room which claimed to have the best hot chocolate in town, and it was really good! It was incredibly sickly though and gave both Erin and I a headache for the ride home!

Altogether a really fun day out in Bruges, truffles bought, Belgian food eaten and Belgian alcohol drunk, and Belgian chocolate drunk! This is another place where we will definitely be returning!!

... the streets towards the windmills. They have a gorgeous walkway and park all along the river with 2 huge windmills. They don’t seem functional but they are surrounded by white fences that have been twisted, the same way lace is, to create a fabulous design. Brugge is known for their lace and this seemed like a nice reminder. We enjoyed the scenery a little bit before making our way back to the campsite.

Next stop Brussels!

... 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.
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.

... 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.

This morning came early for all of us. We all made it to class, but our teacher could tell we were all a bit tired. After only an hour and a half, Jake started falling asleep, and instead of getting angry or annoyed, he got excited. He was like, look at it!! Apparently no one has ever fallen asleep in ...

... Maiden t shirts and fashion shops (we use that term loosely) sold glomesh bags. Pubs and bars played Cyndi Lauper, Racey (honestly we were tapping along to "Some Girls") and Phil Collins to name a few. We had arrived in eighties paradise ..or hell ! See mullet photo - it's GOLD. We also did a 40km bike ride to the coast - it was a glorious ...

... saw the louvre and le cathedrale de notre dame. these were all pretty amazing. i am also pround to say that we were in and out of the Louvre (the worlds largest museum) in a mere hour and forty mintues, and we saw everything that we wanted to. well hate to say it but my internet time is almost up so im gonna run. see you all very soon. Josh