Blogs from Brugge, Saint-Raphael, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 12

Finally-- an Internet cafe! I'm sure you have all been checking your email in regular intervals for updates from the CSP girls. We're currently in Bruges, Belgium, after 2 days in Amsterdam. A brief summary of our last few days: Amsterdam -Possibly one of the most confusing cities EVER, however much prettier then we expected it to be. It's filled with canals, great architecture, and wonderful food (you will probably soon notice that great food is going to be a theme of this blog). We enjoyed large amounts of falafels, pancakes, and the local delicacy of fries with mayo (not recommended). -So many of you heard about the very small amount of planing that went into this trip. After two years of organizing and planning our way through grad school we want to go through Europe ... read more

We arrived in Bruges (or Brugge, in Dutch) early afternoon on Friday. Busy on the streets again due to the holiday of Ascension and Labor Day. We were denied at three hostels. By the time we got to the third one, we set our bags down to formulate Plan Z. Jan, the hostel receiptionist, took pity on us. First, we asked if we could store our bags there while we walked around town....all night...maybe camp out in the park. Just kidding...but we did consider it. Then, while we cooled down at the hostel bar, he received a phone call from another hostel about a last minute cancellation. Before we headed out, he offered to let us crash at his place, which was very generous of him. Jan gave us a personal tour of the city. It ... read more

Sunday 20th April 2008 No chance for a lie in this morning. We were rudely woken by the alarm clock at 5.30 in order to catch the early train from St Pancras International. Needless to say we were early to the station which gave us plenty of time to get into the holiday spirit and to enjoy a croissant and a coffee before boarding the Eurostar to Brussels. Two hours of reading and dozing on the train and we were in Belgium; the view on the way had been limited by fog but it was only France. Changing trains was simple in Brussels; we were wondering what the main tourist language was going to be in Belgium; French? German? We would have coped, but fortunately it was English! This travelling life is easy. An hour on ... read more

When most people think of Belgium, the city to visit that comes to mind is usually Brussels. I originally thought this, too, but from speaking to Europeans as well as searching for information we decided the city of Brugge to be our Belgium adventure. It proved to be a good choice! When we arrived at night, Brugge's quiet cobblestone streets paved our way to the hostel. Along these old yet manicured passages were shops, restaurants, apartments and hotels were lined up like a box of weather-worn pastel chalks. While the city was quiet at night, it didn't feel dead. Bars and restaurants in nooks of the squares lit up with candles, fancy lights and good conversation. So after checking into our very comfortable hostel (less than a 10 minute walk from the train station), we watched ... read more

Morning: Last nite we both didnt have a good sleep cos it was way too cold and we dun know how to turn the heater on. So we slept on a bit more in the morning and cooked breakfast, then left the house at only 1pm. Afternoon: It is still cold and windy even tho the sun is shining so we decided to head to the train station to enquire abt the train tkts we need for the nex few days. Ok somehow from the house to train station, we have to walk past the town centre and we got distracted by so many things, we only reached the train station at 4pm. First of all, we decided to climb up the Belfort of 366 steps to the top. Luckily along the way up, there were ... read more