To the Sea and Back

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2nd day in Bruges (Brugge) To the sea and back

This morning we decided to be adventurous and explore the Belgium countryside- by bike. After a very crummy hostel breakfast, we rented bikes and found ourselves navigating the medieval streets by bike. We got a bike map from the hostel which has a bunch of suggested bike routes. We chose the seaside route- to the Belgian coast of the North Sea. They told us it would take about an hour to get there and an hour back (a 40K trip). What we didn't consider is that the average Belgium/Dutch person rides everywhere, so there is no way that us out of shape Canadians can keep up with their pace! One hour for these people does not = 1 hour for us! So naturally it took us 2.5 hours to get to the costal town of Blankenberge. Oh yes, and we got lost! The way te trail system works is that you have to follow the numbers. Each number is a segment of a trip, and there are paths going all around the region of Flanders (some to castles or windmills etc.) We chose a route which is a combination of path numbers that would eventually lead us to the sea. You had to pay really close attention to the numbers because if you missed one, you could go hours in the wrong direction. well, we didn't go hours in the wrong direction but we missed seeing one and we continued when we should have turned. About 15 min down the road we thought hmm... this isn't right. Mike eventually convinced me to turn around (I hate backtracking). This took us about 1k out of our way. Finally we found the road that we had mised so we got back on track. We thought it would be an easy ride through the countryside, however, the sea was a lot further away than we expected. The trail took us through the countryside, near by wind turbines, along canals, through farmland growing potatoes, wheat, onions and corn and through cute little medieval towns such as Dudzele, Lissewege and Koolkerke (where we got lost). There were many turns, which was probably why it took so long. We dug deep and arrived in Blankenberge on the coast about 21K later. At that time, we didn't think we could make it back so we decided that we would take the train back to Brugge (where it conveniently went) after we hang around the beach a bit. 20K isn't bad for a day, plus we didn't want to retrace our steps. So we locked up our bikes and went in search of some belgium waffles to eat- which in Belgium eat as the Belgians eat (waffles and chocolate). It wasn't hard to find the beach, which was lined with 20 floor hotels row on row. There were a few restaurants on the boardwalk. Interestingly, on the beach there appears to be little beach clubs that I have never seen before. Clubs were called by their owners names (I guess) such as michael's or ingrid's.. and it would just be a sectioned off part of the beach. they all had their own chairs you could rent to sit in their "prime property" for 5 Euros. Of course there was a public beach too. We never did get our lunch there- we sat down at one resturant on the boardwalk that had them on the menu, but then after we ordered drinks they told us that they didn't serve waffles until 2pm (WHY?!?). So we left, walked around a bit more. Then we got some shitty rewarmed waffles and went back to Bruges.

Back in Bruges we had a few more hours to spend and a few thing to finish:
1. We climbed the Belfry Tower (the one from the movie In Bruges). After our bike ride, the 366 steps were a bit of a struggle, but it was worth it because of the view of the beautiful medievel town and red roofs.
2. We wanted to see the statue of Madonna and Child by Michaelangelo, which was in the Church of Notre Dame
3. We wanted real Belgian waffles which we got at a restaurant off the main square

Then we caught the train back to Utrecht, and we hope to make it in time to see the second half of the World Cup football game: Netherlands vs. Uruguay

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