Blogs from Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 6

This is way long overdue, but I'm home sick today, so I'm gonna sit and write this. My favorite city in Europe is Bruges. There. I said it. I can probably never afford to go back there again because it's the most expensive city ever in this world (that I've been to), but it's all kinds of amazing. We left Cologne, Germany at 4:30 and drove to Belgium. 3 countries in 1 day. Awesome. Naturally, I navigated again. The drive was...dark. Exciting, I know. We passed Brussels, which we could only tell because it was a really big city with lots of lights. Adam drove, and I was awake, and we said, "look! Brussels!" but Darcy and Noah were passed out in the back seat. Really excited moment for all four of us. Anyway, we got ... read more

I spent the morning wandering some more around Brugge. It was quite wet, so I took a hot-on-hop-off bus, but basically just stayed on the bus for most of the morning. As the weather cleared in the afternoon, I did some window shopping. Late in the afternoon, I made my way back to Paris on local and Thalys trains, then took the City Night Line train to Berlin. The posts will be: Wandering Brugge Brugge Shopping Trains to France and Germany The average temperature in Bruges was 6C / 42F with some rain, and I did 13,077 steps on my fitbit. ... read more

I love window shopping in foreign cities, just to see what’s different between my local shops at home, and the shops where I’m visiting. These beanies (Australian for wooly hats) looked very warm, but very kitchy touristy, and I doubt I would ever see the need to wear one at home in Sydney. I have never seen cranberries in a bag fresh before! (I’ve only seen them dried, as a juice, or as a jelly for meats (like turkey) – I don’t think anyone here grows them…) And our oranges come with the stems removed. I just loved the colours of the wool and the fabrics in this shop, so I bought some fabric for my quilting. I didn’t buy any wool, but I wish I had.... read more

There was so much in the way of sweet food, I could have put on 100kg just looking at it all! Chocolate Marzipan Hard Lollies (candy) Pastries and other yummies ... read more

Weather forecast was for a cool, cloudy day with a possibility of showers but we ended up with a glorious, mild, sunny day. First stop was the Markt, a large open square in the Centre of the city ringed by step-galled street cafes and dominated by the 84 metre high Belfort, Belgium's famous medieval bell tower. This is 'the' bell tower in the black comedy 'In Bruges'. The Belfort has 366 steep, narrow steps that lead to the top of the tower. It was quite a claustrophobic experience climbing them especially given that there were people passing you on their way down. Fortunately every so often there is a landing that allows you to take a breather! The 360 degree view from the top was unbelievable. Photos will not do the view justice but hopefully will ... read more