Strandhotel - Grand Cafe Du Bassin Ostende

... s nickname "Venice of the north". It is full of little canals and narrow streets, like some of the other old towns we have seen but this one had a character and vibe that we really understood.Chocolate, love it (we bought a box and ate it in a day). Waffles, love them. Beer, Steve loves it. Fries, all good (we tried two different kinds- one with "special sauce" which turned out to be mayo, curry ketchup and onions, and one with ...

In Brugge...that's like a movie title and everything, but there I was actually In Brugge. It is as beautiful and magical as everyone says it is. It's as if Disneyland bought a city, tore it down, and put this in its place. There are canals, and swans that swim in them. There are large medieval buildings that are lit at night and tons of shops filled with sweets and handmade lace. There are men who drive horse drawn carriages and ...

... 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’t like them, because I ...

... wouldn&#8217;t leave me alone! He actually buzzed about my ear and I launched out of my chair and did a little dance around the place! We moved back out the front after that!<br><br>When the waiter came to bring our bill I asked him where the main square and the main part of town was and he looked at me strangely and said &#8216;this is it&#8217;. Whoops!<br><br>We cycled around town and explored a bit more but there really wasn&#8217;t much at all! So we went back to Brugge via a ...

... with a million photos. But this town is just amazing. The bulk of the business of the town is tourism, but if you stay off the main street and square it&#8217;s not so bad. I went looking for the sights I saw in the movie &#8220;In Bruges&#8221;. Decided not to climb the big tower as they wanted to charge me 8 Euro to climb about 600 steps. Um&#8230;.I don&#8217;t think so. Tomorrow I&#8217;ll go to the Church of Our Lady where a famous ...

... 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 ...

So, We got up and caught a train to Bruges. As we walked towards our hostel I noticed that everything was so nice and so clean. Then we made it to the fountains. I fell in love then. The houses and buildings are so cute. They are side to side with neat little rooftops. The streets were stone and curvy. It was just so nice. <br><br>When we got to our hostel the guy working was by far the ...

... Diksmuide and returned by the canal road again, as we were now running into a head wind decided to set up a chain gang of two all the way back. Total distance covered about 82K average speed 29K. Think we may have spotted why Barry hasn't been out to the caravan for such a long time. ( See Photo 3 ). Phil looked a bit Knackered after the ride so we had to have some refreshments ( See Photo 4 )

... its beaches. I expected it to be very hot since Bruges was very warm, but I brought a hoodie anyway. It's a good thing because it was very windy and cool in certain areas. I grabbed a ****** hot dog bun and sat at the church square for a moment. Then I walked along the seaside promenade and had a snack. Ostend is definitely not the nicest seaside resort town I've been to - it's got a gritty feel to it but still provided a nice ...

... were driving to our first campsite back at Brugge. Beautiful medieval city from the late 16 hundreds. Gent, our favorite, was next for two days and now Brussels. We are still giddy with the excitement of our travel and each day brings new learning, tastes, views and did I mention the beer. <it is wonderful, although we still do not drink it in the morning like the locals. The pool has no winner yet as we are still on good terms. Chou. Dan and Tut.