Thermae Palace Ostende

... of like a glass cylinder really and what I think is supposed to be inside it is a piece of the cross that Jesus died on with his blood on it. There was definitely a tinge of red to it but I’m not authorized to say whether it was the real deal or not. All the same I said a little prayer for Obelix, it can’t hurt! When we got outside Witek told me he said a prayer for Obelix too and I thought that was nice that we were both on the same page.

After this we decided ...

... my feet and I needed the protein recharge. Snap, snap, snap, snap…photos done and I’m done with the Grand Place. Chocolate shops everywhere. Yes, it’s good. Yes, it’s better than See’s. But they’re in every nook and cranny and you start to feel like you’re on Mainstreet USA in Disneyland. So I struck out to find the peeing boy statue which is Brussels’ other claim to fame. Through winding ...

... 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 – 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.

To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

... I have seen since being here. I'm wishing now that we had ventured inside, but our time there was very short. We will just have to travel there again in the future.


After leaving Cologne we arrived in Brussels, Belgium and took the subway to the area of town where our bed and breakfast was located. After a little confusion, due to an absence of any sort of sign or marking of the building, we found the B and B and we ...

... a carillon concert which happens every Sunday at 2pm and they play Greensleeves, Danny Boy and a Bach symphony. When we reached the top of the tower, Katelyn said, I hope the bells don't ring and in the next second they did, very loudly.

We packed our bags as we were leaving for Amsterdam the next day. I loved Bruges but because Greg hadn’t felt well, we hadn’t done anything outside of Bruges and it had been pretty relaxing compared to London.

... none of the flavours were labelled in the shop and there was no description sheet. I also had to take photos of the rude chocolate in the windows (only in Belgium???). I couldn’t believe how many more people there were in town for the weekend.

I met up with Greg and the girls for lunch which actually consisted of another pastry from our favourite patisserie!!! This time I had a mango and raspberry ...

... The praline was really nice- you can buy it by the bucket from suppliers, I had resisted because of the quantity you have to buy, but it was so nice that I may have to change my mind.

Up until now, I had been really eating healthily and with all of the walking, had actually started to lose weight, and then we found a place that has led to my undoing. Yes, it was a patisserie with the European pastries that I have craved. I had a fruit tart which was divine.

That ...

... was much bigger than I imagined and on arrival we got caught up in a huge industrial area with factories belching out smoke and goodness knows what into the atmosphere. I didn't have a town map with me, just a general road map to get from one town to another and so we were driving round trying to see signs for the relevant beach. When me and John are alone, we often meander around a big town in the car until we see where we want to go - it's just ...

... willy if he likes you he lets you in, if not he says he is full. The local boys talked the talk and got us in. Everyone was tanked including Mum (who everyone called Mum) and after Willy's we all ended up playing pool at a local pub and Mum decided she wanted to keep the gum ball machine and tried dragging it out until the manager said he was calling the ...

... I was still working on the Jup (Brugge Tripel, Brugge Straffe, Bush). Anyway, I finally made it to the Brugge Tripel. It was a good beer. Surprising I know but it was. We then started our walk to the next bar as his goal was to do a little bar hopping and get less then 3 hours of sleep he got in Brussels the previous night. We ended up going to this bar/club in a tent. There was a line so we left. As we were leaving ...