Brugge

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Ahhh Brugge. Every second shop is a chocolate shop and every other shop is overflowing with frilly Belgian lace aprons as souvenirs for the tourists crowding the streets. The whole town is set up to embrace the tourist hordes, from its (minimum) tri-lingual menus, cheesy horse and carriage rides through the cobbled streets and the Belgian chocolate/beer/lace museums. Yet it is easy to understand why Brugge is such a popular destination.

We had a marvellous time exploring the charming medieval streets, drooling our way through the chocolate museum and munching our way through the many wonderful eating establishments around town.

The highlight was New Years Eve, when the Brugge town council provided our entertainment by removing the barriers to the ice skating rink for the festivities (a better view of the NYE concert stage was afforded by slipping and sliding across the watery ice). The fireworks were fairly tame, but we laughed ourselves silly at the Belgian Beavis and Butthead (one was wearing an ACDC shirt) conga-ing and slipping their way around the ice skating rink and trying to encourage others to join them. Then there was young John Travolta practising his "smooth slides" to impress the twelve year old on-looker hotties. That's not to mention the many high-heeled females I saw trying to navigate the ice without breaking anything. Quite phenomenal. And no, we did not join in. We were quite content to (try to) keep dry on the sidelines.

We also refrained from joining in the crazy Belgian dance moves for some of the NYE songs. Unfortunately, I did not brush up on my Belgian pop knowledge before my holiday, so we did not know 66% of the songs played in the NYE concert. There was a bit of John Lennon, bit of ABBA, but I *wish* I knew what the techno-beat song was that caused all of the surrounding Belgians to start squatting up and down, turning around in circles and behaving somewhat like drunken sumo wrestlers. It was almost funnier than all the people falling over on the ice!

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Photos

The Brugge dragon
We found this "dragon" wandering the streets of the city.

Interesting Belgian local cuisine
We decided not to eat at this particular establishment given the meals on offer. Ahem.

Belgian mussels
This was taken at an all-you-can-eat place. This mussel pot was more than enough to fill me up.

Revellers in Brugge square on NYE
The two closest to the camera are the Belgian Beavis and Butthead conga-liners.

Comments

[BLACKbAT]

Bruggie Foodie
See, you're at it again....food I mean! I do feel sorry for the sea wolf who was attacked on the bacon though!