In the Clear?...Maybe not

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So we woke up in Brugge and planned to head straight for the ATM to retrieve the money to pay for our accommodations...but not until having another lavish breakfast with our new German friends. We had a great conversation talked about all things German. We were fascinated to learn more about the Autobahn and how many Germans feeling driving fast is a treasured freedom (like owning guns can be for some Americans). There is a minimum speed but no maximum and in spite of people traveling at crazy speeds, there are few to no accidents. It partly may be due to being trained to drive like that but the German cars also are equipped with very few distractions like a cup-holder so that the driver has his or her undivided attention on the driving. We also learned what they called the "dark part of their history" (referring to WWII) was how the Autobahn was created. Hitler was trying to create work and self worth for the Germans during this time-to keep them busy. After breakfast, we headed to the ATM and retrieve the funds and went straight back to pay the owner before starting our day. After getting dressed, we made a couple of stops at chocolate stores to bring back chocolates and at a shoe store where Khyati had eyed a pair of flip flops. We bought the shoes and went to the B&B to get our luggage and take a bus to the train station. The trains left for Brussels every hour so we would be catching the 13:30. We boarded the train, chocolates in tow in a special bag and begin to relax when Jordan asked Khyati if she had the Kindle. "Nooo", she responded looking at him quizzically. We panicked realizing neither of us had it. This was the same Kindle we had cursed the whole trip because of its "clunky browser" though it had been so useful in reference Rick Steve's guidebooks in each country. But where could it be? We racked our brains and concluded that we had left it at the b&B, the chocolate stores or the shoe store. We asked a nice man near us if we could use his phone so that we could call the B&B but we couldn't get through. So, we got off at the next stop to take the next train back to Brugge. We planned for Khyati to stay at the station with the luggage while Jordan took a bus back to the town center and looked for the Kindle in the places visited that morning. Khyati waited for an hour for him to come back and imagined him running down the station, a smile on his face and Kindle in hand. Unfortunately, that was not the reality. He was unable to find the Kindle, asking clerks in each place and leaving his contact information. We had left the Kindle somewhere and someone else had picked it up...hopefully someone who needed it more than we did.

We got back onto the train at 15:30 finally on our way to Brussels. Fortunately, when we got to Brussels the hotel was a short walk away and in the center of a lot of activity though it was on top of a restaurant and couldn't tell that it was a hotel. We checked in and decided to make the most of our remaining time. We had to stop at the tourist information center and at the Internet store to make sure our finances were in check to finish up our trip. We walked around and having not had lunch stopped at the next appealing spot for an early dinner. The restaurant was called TradiNature and the food was delicious! From there, we decided to spend the next 6 hours on a self guided tour of Brussels using the map picked up at the TI to hit up all the spots on the map. It was an ambitious endeavor both physically challenging and mentally challenging as we made up the history of the sights we were seeing. While we were looking at a map at one point a Belgian man came to offer his help though we were fine with just walking and getting lost. He insisted on helping us and since it was Flanders Day, he started talking about the Flemish vs Belgian conflict there in Belgium. It was definitely interesting and though we were itching to be on our way, we learned a lot about the sights we were going to see. To our surprise, he said our self guided tour would cover 90% of the city, which was not too bad with 6 hours to work with. So we walked and walked and enjoyed the city more than we had expected to. Though the smaller towns were charming, the tourism industry is so blatant that it was nice to be in a big city where people lived and worked and not only for tourists. At some point we ended in the town square filled with thousands of people and surrounded by beautiful, Gothic buildings. There was a live concert and people enjoying the merriment of Flanders Day. We met a couple of pilots and talked to them for awhile before we continued on our tour. We saw beautiful sights including one that overlooked Brussels. Brussels is also the headquarters of the European Union but we didn't venture out that far as we were told it wasn't much to see. Around 22:00 we finished up our tour and decided it was time for Belgian waffles. So we stopped for our last Belgian waffles and ate them on the lit up square as music and laughter filled the air. Another magical night in Europe in spite of troubles along the way.

UPDATE: On August 19th, Jordan received a call from London. the person on the other end asked Jordan if he was missing a Kindle! Jordan assumed it was a prank call from one of his friends. Alas, it was the Amazon office in London. Someone had found the Kindle in Belgium and mailed it to the nearest Amazon office. We have since received the Kindle in the mail to our delight and bewilderment. Wow.

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