Bless this city - Brugge, Belgium - Day 1

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Today started very early, and we raced to the Paris - Gare Du Nord train station. It was very overwhelming at first....I haven't been that lost ever. We did finally make our way to the correct rain platform only to find out that the train we needed was cancelled....but an earlier one was leaving within minutes. We managed to get ourselves on that train and rode out to Brussels where we caught another train to Brugge. Travel timewas not over, as we fought our way onto an extraordinarily crowded bus through Brugge (I think school just let out). We missed our stop, but only by 100 yards or so, and walked it to our bed and breakfast at the home of Marie-Rose DeBruyne. Using the door code given us, we entered and found our room just off the entranceway. We still haven't met our hosts, but surely will tomorrow at breakfast. The rooom is great and defintely an upgrade from Paris.

This city is awesome. We feel like we're caught in the 1500's. The stone buildings and roads, waterways, and overall scenery is breathe taking. We walked through the better part of central Brugge and saw Church of Our Lady (which has Michaelangelo's Modanna and Child sculpture, plus many other works), Basilica of the Holy Blood (which claims to have a vile of Jesus' blood captured in the crusades, and I touched it!....for the mere price of 5 euros, of course). The Groenginge Museum was closed for rennnovation, which is a real bummer because I am a fan of old Flemish art and this is one of the best places for it...however, they have loaned a few pieces during the rennnovation to Hospitaalmuseum nearby so I did get to see Hieronymus Bosch's "The Last Judgement" and another piece, "Torments of Job" attributed to his workshop.

We then stopped by the Half Maan Brewery (Half Moon) where we had a couple of great beers, but tours were already over for the day, so we went back to Markt Square and sat at an outdoor cafe where we devoured Belgian waffles and had another Belgian beer....as we ate, an orchestra began playing in Markt Square. It just added to the experience and really topped off the night. Overall, the bes tday of the trip yet. The people here are friendly, the food superb, language is not a barrier, and the beer is ridiculously fabulous.

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Comments

[Lemon Party Pro]

U Suck
I'm so jealous...Please no more pics of you with high quality beer, you're killing me. next time im sneeking in your suitcase...isn't 200lbs the limit on your suitcase?