Westminster 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 ...

... 1st original beer was invented there, it tasted like ****.<br><br>We had to walk around looking for another hostel the next day &#8211; ours was all booked, so after doing that we decided to go ultra-touristy and go on a boat ride! Apparently the boat driver was speaking English, but we couldn&#8217;t understand a word he was saying, so we just sat back, enjoyed the view and took heaps of photos because we are tourists and that&#8217;s what tourists do. After that we ...

... that yes, it was very &#8216;unique&#8217;. I almost choked on the bitter taste! Blech, I still can taste it and shudder as I write this five days later!! <br><br>Witek felt bad for me and said he would help me drink it, but the look on his face told me that he wasn&#8217;t a big fan either. I had paid double the price of the other beers for this one though (I guess because of it&#8217;s &#8216;uniqueness&#8217;) so I was determined to finish it! I approached the bar and asked them to ...

... and Child by Leonardo Da Vinci is housed &#8211; the &#8220;pointy church&#8221; from the movie. I may get lost again. In this town, that&#8217;s not so bad.<br><br>Off the wall observations: It seems that the Italians make the American look like seasoned, sophisticated tourists. They&#8217;re everywhere, they&#8217;re loud, and you definitely don&#8217;t want them in line in front of you. They&#8217;ll take a half hour arguing with ...

... ice cream combination was ridiculously delicious. After that, we continued to the main plaza (where the climax of In Bruges occurred, for those interested &#8211; it was crazy to be where it was filmed!). There, we walked around the bell tower, the Medieval Belfort, and admired all the fantastic architecture, including the beer wall that displayed every beer brewed in Belgium &#8211; a landmark in wall construction, I&#8217;m sure. We skipped lunch ...

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 ...

... 4 or 3, that's not a bike and that kids or family can ride. You have the solo cuistax and also the huge and heavy "get all together" tank cuistax with up to 8 seats. Get all the family together : grand-parents, parents, friends, kids, and babies in the same boat :-) Or a bunch of friends too, especially if you drink-drive in the sun :-) this ...

... holes, and bunkers today. They're covered with grass now, but it's still obvious how much the area was devastated. The last place we went was the infirmary where Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrea tended the wounded. He penned the famous haunting poem "In Flanders Field": "In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns ...

... out at regular intervals, altogether weighing a total of 27 tonnes. Tucked away in a small corner of an area called Burg Square is the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Its a small little chapel dedicated to the relic of the Holy Blood, a small bottle of rock crystal, believed to contain the blood of Jesus Christ, brought to Bruges from Constantinople (that's Istanbul for those who got a f grade in history) sometime around the 12th century. Every year ...