Blogs from Brugge, Saint-Raphael, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 9

Sunday morning - Brugge, Belgium Jean's smiling face greeted me at the Amsterdam airport - after I picked up my luggage and made my way through customs. We made our way to the train station end of the Schipol airport and after a bit of a struggle with the kiosks, bought tickets to Amsterdam central. Made our way into Amsterdam, and walking out of the train station made it all instantly feel familiar, and like we had just been here. Both Jean and I were delighted that after a year of planning and hoping to return, we were really back! Apparently Friday was the Queen's Birthday, a very bid deal here in the Netherlands, as the entire town resembled that of a Frat House after an all night party! We got checked into our hotel and ... read more

FINALLY, we are in the "leave in 4 days" proximity of our trip to BIKE BELGIUM 2009! My sister Jean and I had such a great time in 2008, we spent the latter part of our trip dreaming/scheming our return ~ and were going to do it! I leave from Fairbanks, AK at 9am on Thursday, April 30th, and Jean leaves from Maryland - we meet up in Amsterdam the afternoon of May 1st. We are returning to our wonderful Amsterdam hotel for the night, and then jumping on a train to Brugge on Saturday, May 2nd. We have rented a 3BR house in Brugge for our 3 week stay. Jean calls our day trips "Daisey chains" as we will be exploring /biking most days, and returning to our place in Brugge at night. We plan ... read more

The first stop on our Belgium leg of the trip is a small town just over the French border by the name of Ypres (or Ieper in Flemish). Ypres holds a significant place in Australian history as it saw significant fighting in the First World War and thousands upon thousands of Australians are buried there. To place its significance in perspective, of the 55,000 Australians killed in the Great War, about 9,000 died on the Gallipoli Peninsula with the majority of the rest on the Western Front, many of whom fell in the Ypres area. The town itself was completely destroyed during the fighting in WWI, and by completely destroyed it was literally wiped off the map - not a single building stood at the end of the war. The town has been convincingly rebuilt to ... read more

(November 25th - 26th) Before typing this, Brian and I decided it would be a good idea to watch the movie “In Bruges” and see what they had to say about the town. So let’s start with that: Harry: So he's having a really nice time? Ken: Well, I'm having a really nice time. I'm not sure it's really his cup of tea. Harry: What? Ken: You know, I'm not sure it's really his thing. Harry: What do you mean it's not really his thing? What's that supposed to mean? It's not really his thing. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Ken: Nothing, Harry. Harry: It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing? . . . and that pretty much sums up Brian and I walking around Bruges. ... read more

We hired bikes today with the aim of riding to the seaside! We bought a map from the tourist info office and the man said the cycle path started "just over there". Famous last words... we got lost in the suburbs of Brugges and got shouted at by a police officer for riding the wrong way down a one way street! After about an hour a nice man in a bright red full length cycling outfit asked us if we were lost and gave us directions! He then told us a story about the medieval gate we were standing next to.. Once a traitor/theif/baddy secretly left the city gates open at night to let in the thieves and bandits so they could rob the very rich medieval city of Brugges. After all lots of their gold ... read more