Blogs from Saint-Raphael, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 7

We arrived in via train and instead of taking the bus we walked along the river and backstreets to our hotel for the night. Loads of bikes, scooters and motorbikes were zooming past us on the bike path but along the river was stunning and in the backstreets there was nobody in sight. There was a bit more action in town but not as much as we expected. Our guide book tells us Bruges is overcrowded and a tad fake, which we don’t believe is true. It definitely has character and is beautiful. We went for a wander around town. It was a bit rainy so we saved most of our sightseeing for the following morning but we did see the Begijnhof where a religious community lived in the 13th century. Maybe it was the weather ... read more

I thought that Holland was a pretty place but Belgium was just gorgeous!! Some says because Belgium was not that important city during world wars, so somehow the ancient arquitecture is still well conserved. Building shapes, old cathedrals and lovely chapels, antique shops, little bridges, beeeeeeer, smells, old streets, people around chocolates, very touristic of course but is so charming...I don´t blame lovers and honeymooners, really. But, its something more than just the "intellectual air"....quiet, unpredictable curvy streets, definitly gothic! I don´t really know. I really wanted to climb the bell tower, nothing really hard, but I could realized that the city had a charming arquitecture....a french touche, a drop of german..got it! It´s a Flemish spirit around, Flanders land..... Unique!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... read more

Hey everyone! I'm back from Belgium and I'm so glad I was able to catch the early train back to relax before I fly out tomorrow to a new country and continent. No doubt, I'm gonna be beat when I head back to the states. What can I say about Belgium? It was awesome! Like much of Europe there is still so much to explore. I ventured out to the Flanders region of the country. I headed to Brugge, Monday and was there for 2 days. It was quite an experience to get there since the original train ended up getting cancelled, so after leaving Lisa's apartment at 7am expecting the train to leave at 7:35, it turned out that it was cancelled... boo!! I had to then take 4 trains to get to Brugge - ... read more

I love Brugge! How could you not? What is Belgium known for…umm let me fill you in…the most amazing beer in the world, chocolate, mussels/frits, and waffles (well among other things). My goal for the short weekend I spent in Brugge was to consume as much of the before mentioned food/drink as possible….and I have to admit, I did pretty well for myself! I hopped on a train from Paris (Nord) to Brugge early Saturday morning (2.5hrs), which put me into the small historic city around 10:30 in the morning. I had spent all my time the night before researching the Belgium beers and unfortunately didn’t have any place to stay that night. So my plan was to first find a bed for the night and then start my world wind tour of the city. It ... read more

Bruges Walk through town Katie and I spent our first day in Bruges exploring the small city. We went into the basement of the Crown plaza to see the ruins of an ancient church. Then we went to a church that claims to hold some of Jesus's blood. We were there for some ceremony for they take it from it's special spot on an alter to another place on the pulpit so people can touch it and pray. It was interesting to see, but the whole thing seemed a little whacky to me. After the church, we walked through Markt, the main square, but there wasn't much activity. Next, we headed to the other edge of town and walked through the park along the river. We walked along to the gate over the river that was ... read more