Rose Garden Blankenberge

... window on the way, listening to my ipod looking out the window. By the time I got out of the train at Brugges, and walked along countless other tourists (insane, and this is WINTER), the sun had peeked out a bit.

By the time I was walking into the main historical center, I had beautiful weather. Nice rays of sunshine giving me some beautiful lighting for pictures and just admiring the beauty of ...

... fuel in Dijon, which (at least the parts we saw) didn't look all that great, in contrast to the rest of the country which I thought was great.

Our final stop in France was in Metz, where we grabbed lunch, had a quick walk around the markets and I bought a crepe with strawberry jam (delicious). We had a walk through St Stephens Cathedral - a massive church whose construction started in around 1220 and finished in 1520. It is a very spectacular building, incredibly tall and with ...

... at the end.
We also toured the local De Halv Maans brewery, which offered good views at the top and pretty good beer. And we found the newest idea in take out--fast food pasta! They cook fresh pasta right in front of you, add a sauce, put it in a cup and give you a fork, for 3 Euro. We think it would take off at home.
Oh, we haven't mentioned chocolate yet. Brugge also has a chocolate museum which ...

... 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!!

... has been preserved. After our nice walk through there we walked to the more modern area of the town and discovered a separate square with the most unusual statues in a fountain. It seemed to greatly contrast the medieval feel of the city and was almost shocking. We enjoyed them greatly though and took some pictures with the ducky of course!

After spending some time sitting at the steps in the market square we made our way up ...

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

... 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.

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 ...

... day trip to Spain booked for October! And I booked my trip to London with Drew to go and see the musical "Wicked." I am so excited! Anyway, Jessica and I dominated some Alanya's Pizza and I went home. Alli came over and we made some further plans for our trip to Spain, talked to my Dad for about an hour on skype and now I am going to bed! Night.

... in Belgium called Bruges. (It is near the coast of Belgium). The train took about 3 hours to get here which seemed like nothing compared to the previous journeys. The town itself is just beautiful. Lots of canals and grand old buildings. The town is a Medievel town with no tourist attractions. They say the entire town is a tourist attraction because of the old castle type buildings, narrow streets and canals. The town has lots of chocolate and ...

... had to recover from the lack of sleep the night before. I went and saw most of the big churches and again had lunch at the local sandwich place I went the day before and ate it sitting on a bench overlooking a canal. The night I ended up watching The Mask of Zorro and going to bed as we were heading back in the morning to Wassenaar. The train ride wasn't too bad. I spent most of the time either writing or going through pictures.