Brugge...and a little further north trying to avoid the rain!

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Our little tour of Europe continue today to the north. We woke up in rainy Luxembourg, and drove three hours through the rain to Brugge. I wanted to stop in Louvain-la-Neuve, the University town where I studied...but the rain was too much for Ma'ri and I to give it a proper stop.

Louvain-la-Neuve is a new city, established in 1968 form the departure of french speaking students of the city of Leuven. At the origin, back in 1968, the city "remained" a construction site for years. I did study here back in 1991 to 1996...at the time, the population was around 25,000, half of us students. Today the "student town" has mutated in a proper city, with the students being a minority. But Louvain-la-Neuve keep her main amazing specificity. The car are "under" the city, while the people and few bicycles have the full right of use of the city itself. It's like a big swiss chese below to allow the car to move and park...but "up there", it's an urban paradise for the walkers.

Small...but serious problem....when it's raining like hell, and that you don't want to leave your car, you won't see much of Louvain-la-Neuve....next year, I'm sure it will be sunnier....

Luckily for us, when we arrived in Brugge...the sky had cleared a little to let us enjoy the views. I've been to Brugge few times, and the last time was with Tiffany and Leslie. This time we climb the Belfry. 366 steps, that would have been a little too much for Tiffany during my last visit 2 years ago. The place is often called the Venise of the North and attracts more tourists each year than the city of Bruxelles! Walking around the canals, climbing the belfry, enjoying the canals...a great way to spend few hours around town. I wanted to try a special restaurant...but this is July and Belgium...and a lot of the best place simply close for few weeks in July.

15Km north of Brugge is the Belgian coast. You can actually see the seaside buidlings from the top of the Belfry. So we headed for our next little stop straight to Knokke-Le Zoute. The place is quite impressive. It does show you how the "good society" in Belgium is able to spend weeks on a "seaside resort town" with a temperature below 20 degres. The beaches, and speacially the sand can seem
average to most people...most except the kids as the sand is a thick and heavy one, perfect for huge sand castles waiting to fight the upcoming tides few hours after their constructions! These a clearly part of my childhood souvenirs, and many kids around belgium share the same souvenirs.

Our next stop could have been for a cuistax ride for few minutes or an hour. We gave it a pass this time. What is a cuistax? Just read my entry 2 year ago to discover the pleasure of Tiffany and Leslie riding these "really belgian" gokarts. We may not have ride a cuistax, but we did had our icecream, an other coastal institution, regardless of the weather conditions. The sun had re-appeared, but the wind was blowing!

Our next stop was a little more to the north, to the city of Sluis. And yes, we did cross another border, this time the Netherlands, and our complete visit of Benelux 3 countries in the same day...small Europe...beautiful Europe. Sluis is a beautiful little border city...with his windmill right in the middle of town. Our main goal was to purchase some "sucre d'orge" for Leslie and Tiffany. I refer to the canides that Ma'ri is holding on one of the pictures. This is another childhood institutions for me...and many other belgian kids. I cannot wait to see the smile of Leslie and Tiffany when they are going to see what is waiting for them...to be enjoyng during the many hours in the car we are going to spend the next few days.

Last stop, but this already another entry...Brussels, capital of Belgium...and if many of my friends are already on holidays, we still had a chance to meet few of them. But for this entry, just be patient few days.

With Love from Ma'ri and I...from the capital of Belgium!

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Comments

[Arjun]

interesting
This is blog is good i will visiting again and again