Back to Belgium

Today we travelled to Belgium with our parents. We started out in the city of Brugge. This is a beautiful city full of (surprise) canals, cathedrals, and incredible architecture. The city is extremely old- many of the buildings dating back to the 1600's. The thing that makes Brugge unique is that even though it is a large city, you feel as if it is very small. All of the streets are narrow and lined with cozy little cafe's, waffle houses, and chocolate shops. Swans swim through all the canals and horses with carriages trot down the streets- its so cute! We only had enough time to walk around the city and visit the major monuments. It was a beautiful fall day though (with NO rain!) and we had a wonderful time.

01 Brugge

In the late afternoon we hopped back on the train and headed to the city of Antwerp. Since Nate and Andrea had been there before we were able to speed walk to the best areas and see the highlights. We ended our day eating at a fantastic Italian restaurant in the heart of the city. I know what you are thinking- "Italian food in Belgium?". It turns out Belgium is home to many Italian immigrants that came to work in mines years ago. Consequently, they opened several restaurants in the city that all have amazing Italian food! We had worked up quite an appetite walking all day, so we REALLY enjoyed our meals!

02 Town Square in Brugge

FYI, we are pretty sure we are not being followed any more (but not positive). Our only mishaps of the day were Scotts gigantic blister on his pinky toe (which he refuses to pop because he's a "dermatologist" and he "knows better") and Nate stepping in a fresh heap of fuming dog poop! Like I mentioned earlier, people bring their dogs with them everywhere, but unfortunately they don't always like to clean up after them!

03 Canals in Brugge

04 Hello Antwerp!

05 A toast to good food!