When we were deciding which countries to visit on our trip, I knew I wanted to go to Belgium and had planned on going to Brussels. Mary Anne said she always wanted to go to Brugge since it was a smaller, more quaint little town compared to the loud, bigger, bustling cities like Brussels. We had a free night stay at the Marriott and the closest one was in Brussels. So from the Netherlands, we headed to Brussels to stay the night. We got a shot of Brussels from our hotel room.
Again...Amazing Race moment....we got to see the Atomium (that silver atom-looking thing) from a distance. That about satisfied what I wanted to see in Brussels.
In the morning we drove above an hour to Brugge (in Dutch or Bruges in French). Mary Anne was right. Quaint, quiet and beautiful. We parked in a parking garage near the train station and then took a bus to Market Square. Lucky for us, Rick Steves has a self guided walking tour in his book. First up is the clock tower...
Our first order of business...frites (fries). Yes, at 9:30 in the morning. This is where I love the Rick Steves book. He describes two Belgian style french fry stands. Facing the clock tower, he says the one of the left is much more "user-friendly." The menu lists every possible option, prices and describes the sauces, etc. The one on the right....well, let's just say Rick Steves was totally correct. While there was almost always a short line in front of the one on the left, we did not see ONE person go to the one on the right. You would think he would wonder what was wrong with his stand, huh?
Mmmmm...I could go for some of those right now. The sauces were a.mazing!
This is a cool sculpture of the clock tower with descriptions of it in Braille. Pretty awesome.
Buildings around Market Square...
To the right of this building is where the post office is (still part of the building just couldn't get it all in the picture!) Such MASSIVE buildings with incredible detail!
We made our way down toward Burg Square, which is Brugge's civic center, historically the birthplace of Brugge and the site of the ninth-century castle of the first count of Flanders.
I loved the canals throughout the town...
Since we had walked off our fries, we were ready for Belgian waffles! Sad, but I was kinda dissapointed. I love Belgian waffles, but evidently not REAL Belgian waffles. I probably should have had mine without the chocolate, but hey if someone offers me something smothered in chocolate, I'll take it. The waffle just wasn't what I was expecting. It wasn't the thick, fluffy waffles you think of. It had this sugary center, and the taste just wasn't all that for me.
We wandered some more through town. It was so nice to just wander and take everything in...
I thought I was doing a good job of following the map and I thought we were heading toward the Church of Our Lady. According to the book, it's where Michaelangelo's
Madonna and Child statue is housed. It's said to be the his only statue to leave Italy during his lifetime.
The organ pipes in these churches are amazing!
Tons of beautiful stained glass windows...
The next set of windows depicted the life of the Savior. First, His birth...
The visit from the wise men...
As a child, teaching in the temple...
His ministry...
By this time I realized we were not in the church I thought we were because there was no
Madonna and Child. So we headed back outside and found the REAL Church of Our Lady. :)
Unfortunately, it was under some pretty heavy renovation and this was all we could see. You couldn't even see the
Madonna and Child (which according to Rick Steves was free to see but with the construction, the only access was through the paid section). What can I say, we're cheap so we didn't see it.
More wandering and we found this cute cafe sign. Made us miss our little Ellie!
We found gelato and chocolates (sad there is no pictures of the chocolate shop!) Rick Steves recommended a few chocolatiers. We went to one and they were closed the day we were there. So we wandered around to find the others and happened upon one with the same name (Dumon) as the one that was closed. If I remember correctly (now 7 months later!) I think his name was Stephen Dumon so we figured it was a son that had opened his own shop. We stepped inside and the lady was helping another customer. She would go down the row, point and say the name of the chocolate and the customer responded yes or no if they wanted it. The lady working there just sounded annoyed at times when they asked what was in it. There was a guy (who we later found out was Stephen Dumon) in the back where the chocolates are made. He was on the phone at one point and then came out and asked if we needed any help. Talking to him was probably the highlight of the day. I would go back to Brugge just to talk to him again. Seriously the most passionate, kind, personable person ever. In fact, Rick Steves says the Dumons don't provide English labels because they believe it's best to describe their chocolates in person --- and they do it with evangelical fervor. Oh. so. true. He described the chocolates and centers like it was his life's passion....okay so it is! His accent was just icing on the cake. He saw that I was holding the Rick Steves book and he said he gets a Christmas card from Rick Steves every year. He didn't know that his family's chocolate store was featured in the book. He said "So that's probably why I get a Christmas card from him!" It was so funny...like this lightbulb moment for him. He let us look around some more and he went back to jamming out and whistling to the music in the back while making chocolates. We wanted to catch his eye to let him know we were ready but Miss I-Must-Not-Be-A-Dumon ended up boxing up our chocolates. Oh well. I still don't know why we didn't get any pictures in there since, hello! Chocolates! Isn't that why you go to Belgium? Souvenirs from there didn't exactly last long so pictures would have been nice. :)
By this time we were making our way back to the train station by foot and stopped at Begijnhof courtyard.
Those houses behind me are where Benedictine nuns live. Almost makes you want to don a habit and fold your hands as you walk under the wispy trees and whisper past the frugal homes. Okay, so maybe I did...
Of course there was a little church in the courtyard and there was actually a nun playing the organ. She looked up just as Rob snapped the picture...
We probably could have spent more time in Brugge if we were the drinking type or wanted to try all sorts of chocolates but we got our taste of this quaint European town in about 5 hours and were on our way to France (with a "little" detour to Luxemburg).
We weren't sure if we wanted to see any sites while driving through Luxemburg but at the last minute (like as we were coming up on the exit) we decided to take it. After all, the GPS would get us there, right? Well, the problem was we didn't even know what "there" was. I had read on a friend's blog about places they went to but I didn't know an exact name to search for on the GPS. Well, to make a long story of our long detour short, the GPS took us through the middle of a big city in the middle of rush hour (read #5
HERE). We eventually found this, which I think is what "there" was supposed to be...The Grand Ducal Palace...
Since we drove through the "width-of-one-small-car" streets, there wasn't a place to park. So I hung out in the car in front of the above picture while Rob got out and walked to the other side and took these pictures...
Hmmm...the detour was not as grand as I thought it would be. An hour (or more) later we were back en route to France. Oh how I miss this...
