A bikeride from Bruges

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  Brugge, West Flanders, Belgium
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Hello Bonjour everyone!

Well, Belgium is one interesting little country! After five days here, I think we can safely say we have discovered this great place! Basically, Belgium is divided into two parts: Wallonia in the south, is hilly and rocky terrain, very beautiful and is French. Flanders in the north is flat terrain, still very beautiful (ah, the prairies!) and is Dutch. We've spent a couple days in Brussels, and a couple days on day trips around the country, too. What I can say for sure is, while I may have had at least a grounding in German, Dutch is going over my head! At least it's somewhat similar to German, but not much, so... it has been a bit difficult when we leave the French parts!

Saturday, we spent the day acquainting ourselves with Brussels. We met up with Ken again (who we met in Luxembourg) in the morning. The three of us visited the Belgium National Bank's Currency Museum, which, believe it or not, is more boring than it sounds! It was very plainly presented and doesn't really discuss interesting or relevant subject matter. The bits on the advent of the Euro were good, though. Ken was especially displeased with the museum. Then, we went to the Musical Instrument Museum, where we got in for free because I chit-chatted with the security guard and he loved that we were from Canada! This museum was (for me anyway) super super cool! It has over 1500 instruments from all over the world, and the headsets they give you play a sample of the lusic when you stand in front of the instrument. Also, we went to a free choral concert. Which actually wasn't that incredible. I suppose I've become a harsh critic of choirs, but they didn't even memorize their music, and their vowels didn't match at all. Also, the conductor had to give all the pitches. Not that impressed. We left partway through a song that lasted 20 minutes and showed no signs of stopping. Then we walked around Brussels, as it was a very sunny day.

Sunday, Alex and I went on a day trip to the south east, to a town called Rochefort, a very pretty town. Actually, the train dropped us off in Jemelle, which is very ugly and nothing was open. We had to walk to REochefort. Anyways, after exploring Rochefort a bit, we went to the Grotte de Lorette, an deep natural cave where scientists have uncovered a subterranean river and there are fossils of thousand-year-old animals. Also, they have a big seismology outfit there, and they can apparently detect earthquakes from around the world. Really quite interesting. Going back to Jemelle, we walked along a very scenic path, through the Belgian countryside!

Monday, I went to the BODYWORLDS exhibit which is on here in Brussels. It's an international project, travelling to lany cities. When it came out, I was still in Sciences and within the first year, the exhibit had come to Toronto and Linneapolis, and everyone else in the faculty saw it except me! Well, finally I had my turn! It was extremely interesting. They use real specimens, donated, to explore the human body and many common diseases! I learnt alot about pathology! In the afternoon, Alex and I went to the European Parliament for a tour and sitting in on a session. Also pretty interesting, but you really can't top awesome science!

Finally, today, we went to Bruges in the northwest. Bruges itself is a very touristy, kitchy town, full of OLD people (Sorry, Baba and Gigi! You guys are COOL old people. These were loud Brits and Americans.) Anyways, after visiting the olf belfry in the middle of town, I went to a Belgian chocolate museum, complete with MANY free samples and a demonstration on making pralines. Also, one display case had a box of Guylian shell chocolates! Then; in the afternoon; I walked back to the train station; rented a bike, and biked along a canal out of town. It was so gorgeous, the nice old countryside, biking along! I was trying to get to the North Sea, but I followed the wrong canal and wound up in the Netherlands, in a town called Sluis. I was very shocked, I didn't think I was able to bike to another country!

AND tomorrow we finally leave Brussels! We stayed a long time to wait for our voting packages, which still haven't arrived, so I doubt we'll be able to vote, which is disappointing. We're going on a day trip to Antwerp tomorrow, and we'll end off the day in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. After two nights there, we aill move on to Amsterdam on Friday.

Take care, everyone!

Wayne

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