I didn't know they were 12% beers!

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Hello all....it's a beautiful day in Brugge, and why am I in an internet cafe, you ask? Pretty much because I've been hit hard by the Belgian beer : ) and there's too many tourists wandering about during the day for me to cope with at the moment. This place is much easier to get around at night when there's less people, and all the buildings and canals are lit by the sunset. I got here yesterday afternoon, and it's still pretty warm by Edmonton standards. Before that, Amsterdam was way, way worse, though. Thirty-two degrees during the day kind of worse. I had a lot of fun there, and met 2 guys at the hostel who were from Edmonton. We entertained each other during our stay by guessing which tourists were going to drop from heat exhaustion, and which Dutch girls were not wearing bras (the guys' game, needless to say). I did do some good old educational things, too. I went to the Van Gogh museum and saw that famous "Sunflowers" painting, among others. I also went to the Heineken beer exhibit, yay for free beer. At night, once it was approaching a temperature that promoted activity, we headed out to some of the jazz clubs and pubs. They were all awesome, and I met a lot of cool Dutch people. After Amsterdam, I went to Rotterdam for a day and a half. It's such a different city from Amsterdam. Most buildings there are new, and they like doing strange architectural experiments, such as the Cube houses. It's also very multicultural, the majority of people I saw on the streets weren't your typical blond-haired, blue-eyed Netherlander. I did a trip out to the Kinderdjik windmills while I was there, too. Didn't rent a bicycle, those things are about 100 years old, single-gears, and no one wears a helmet. Despite this, I saw only one bike accident, and the woman walked away with just some bruises.
Tomorrow, I'm doing a day-trip to Ghent, and the day after, to Ypres. Then it's off to Brussels for a night, and on Saturday I catch the Eurostar train to London. I spend a fabulous night at Heathrow, and the next morning head for home. It's hard to believe that this trip is almost over. In some ways, it feels like I've been travelling for a long time, in other ways, it's like I've just gotten started. Only 5 more days........ I will see everyone sometime after July 3rd!

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