Its Like a Fairy Tale Place

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Hi everyone, from Bruges, Belgium! for any of u who have seen the movie In Bruges, it is exactly as it is portrayed there! It really is a fairy tale place, with cobblestone streets, red roofs and cute medieval-looking houses. In the centre of it all is the Belfort, or belfry, a tall stone tower that chimes every 15 minutes or so.

We arrived exhausted after some strange train delays that saw us take a bus from the Netherlands to Antwerp. After a quiet night in, we took advantage of the sunny weather the next day to rent bikes. We attempted to cycle 12km to the North Sea. Unfortunately the map lied... or we are just dumb.... but 25km later TJ realized we were in the Netherlands! Good thing the scenery along the way was beautiful because we never did see the North Sea! That evening we went to the most dangerous place in Bruges, the T brugs beertje. This place is a bar with over 300 beers so it is indeed dangerous. TJ sampled three gay beers (including cherry flavour!).

The next day was our touristy day and we began by climbing the belfry... all 366 steps winding steps to the top... the stairwell is a bit tight! But we made it and were rewarded by chiming bells at the top and amazing panoramic views of the whole city. Following this we went to the Church of the Holy Blood, a beautiful old church made famous as it houses drops of the blood of Jesus, house in a glass tube. Apparently this was even taken along on the crusades. We timed it perfectly and arrived as they were taking it out to be shown. We both got a chance to touch the vial! Very cool! Next we checked out the chocolate museum where we witnessed chocolate pralines being made and got to samples the goods! Delicious! We then headed to a local brewery, the only one still brewing within the walls of Bruges. It was called the Half Moon, and our hilarious guide took us all through the old brewery and gave us samples at the end.

Our last night we went out to an AMAZING restaurant called Medard, a cute family owned affair with 3€ spaghetti in huge portions and cheap drinks! we were accompanied by our fun Aussie roommates! The four of us then returned to our hostel for beer tasting night put on by the owner, which was great fun (no Teija didnt drink the beer). A fantastic night! We loved Bruges!

So we left Bruges for the capital Brussels. And let me tell you as a former SFU student I have seen some depressing architecture. But Brussels easily tops it. What a shit heap. We went and saw the statue of the little boy peeing as well as the little girl. The latter no longer pees, actually she just looks constipated now. So after seeing that we got the hell out...

And arrived in beautiful Luxembourg! More updates coming soon!

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Comments

[grampa]

we are enjoying
hearing from you. Your trip sounds exciting. Your discriptions of what you are experiencing makes us almost believe we are there too. Grampa and Pat