A Day in Brugge

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Got up this morning around 8am. I had packed a lunch last night for everyone so we just had breakfast and got ready to go. Caught the 9:18 bus to the train station and met the Clausen family Christian, Zoe & Henry). We ended up buying a 10 ride train ticket for 69 euro and sharing it with them. This ride would have cost us about 31 euro total, but with the pass worked out to be about 28, so we saved a little something. We caught the 10:02 train to Brugges. The kids had a good time on the train. Little Henry is in love with Abigail. Zoe told me that everyone at day care knows all about Abigail. So cute. We played Uno and one of the Haba travel games, this one with the bananas, monkeys and coconuts. It was about 1.5 hours but the time passed well.

Once in Brugges we walked the streets sort of uncertain of our final destination. The streets were so pretty with brick houses everywhere with the typical Flemish steps along the roof line. We wandered to the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerek (Church of Our Lady) because it was the closest steeple to navigate by. We lunched on the wall by the church and then wandered around some more. We ended up finding some beautiful little bridges over the canals. Brugges has over 15 kilometers of canals of which 3 are open to the tourist boats. We found a little market and walked through. The girls are really dying for swords and shields and we found some wooden ones there with dragons carved on the front of them; no purchases today though. We did have an ice cream cone and then took a boat ride. It was a half an hour long and a great way to see the city.

We have been having to make some alterations to our travel style over the past few weeks. Normally, Jonathan and I would not use so much public transportation but would rather walk our feet off first. However, we have found that the best way to make the most of a city visit sometimes entails taking a bus or metro to one destination or another. We have also found that frequent stops to snack on items brought or local culinary treats helps to keep everybody with a solid blood sugar level. And so, after the boat ride we walked towards the Markt and stopped along the way for a coffee and sweet treat for the kids (ice cream wasn’t enough?). Energized we found the markt where the a road race was being set up. It was a 10 mile race to commemorate the day when the French were driven out of Belgium (we wondered if on the Wallonian side of Belgium they have a race to commemorate the Dutch being kicked out?). The kids chased birds and Eliza fell asleep in the stroller - yeah! Christian, Henry, Emma, Abigail and I all decided to climb the belfry. 366 steps up to one great view. The girls were fantastic and super excited about climbing up to the top. We saw two windmills and got to see how the bells chimed different tunes. Once down the kids got a frite-boost and then we wandered some more over to the spectacular town hall.

At this point it was almost 5pm so we decided not to stay and have dinner and instead take the train home. We stopped and got some fantastic sandwiches and more water for the ride. We caught the 5:35 home and the ride went so quick. We had the food we bought along with some apples and bananas leftover from lunch. I read the girls their chapter book, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. They love it. We were home by 8pm. The kids had a snack (the new favorite - bananas and peanut butter and plain yogurt with honey and granola) and we finished their book (Emma bawled) so they could get to bed a little before 9pm. More live music tonight around the Begijnhof to accompany our beer and cheese.

This weekend was the Vlaaderen Fest here at the Begijnhof. It was a true multicultural pot-lock with all of our foreign neighbors contributing something yummy (we brought chili to represent the US). They also had traditional Flemish games for the kids to play (the stilts were a big hit). All around Belgium things are being celebrated. School ended for kids one week ago and the summer sales started (this is a month long event throughout most of Europe as they get rid of summer merchandise). Every Friday night three HUGE stages are set up around town and there is different live music every week; this week it was folk and next week it will be jazz. The streets and cafes are overflowing with people. The weather has finally perked up and we are all ready for summer in Europe.

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