Biking through Brugge

Brugge is probably one of those places that if you asked where we were going on this trip and we said Brugge, you may have said, "Where's Brugge?" Brugge is a smaller town on the Dutch-speaking end of Belgium. My family took a trip to Europe five years ago and this was one of the places we stopped. Last time it was my favorite location and so far it is again my favorite! I mean we've only been to two cities, but I really love this one! 

I can do my best to describe it, or you can just look at the pictures and fill in the blanks with your imagination. The streets are narrow and are all cobble stone, there are shops and restaurants everywhere, there is a canal running around the city, large windmills at one end, narrow, crammed houses, and lots of delicious food! When you think Belgium you probably think waffles and chocolate. Well you are correct! There is no shortage of chocolate shops and pastry shops with waffles topped with fruits and cream and more chocolate! 

Before I list off just all of what we ate (it's a really good thing we are walking so much!) I will describe a bit about our train experiences. First we flew from London to Brussels and once we made it to Brussels we had to figure out which train to take to get to Brugge. At this point all the signs were in French (I think!) and we had just found out that there was a train strike among Belgian train conductors so many of the trains were cancelled and delayed! So that was a little concerning! After one train was delayed and then never came, and then another moved platforms twice, we finally got a train to Brugge! We probably looked absolutely ridiculous staring at the screen in confusion, attempting to read the board of train details with our huge backpacks on. Thankfully another person who was going to Brugge spoke English and was filling us in on the details of what was happening. So we made it safely to Brugge and found the home we would be staying in for two nights! For about half of the places we are visiting we booked with a sight called airbnb.com which finds houses in your city that you can rent a room in. You can sometimes even rent just a couch or the whole house depending on what the owner offers up and what you want. So we stayed with a woman named Jacqueline right in the city. She was so welcoming and friendly! English was her third language but she still did a great job showing us around and giving us directions. Her house was very narrow, but our room itself was quite spacious. In the mornings she set the breakfast table with an assortment of breads, drinks, spreads, and meats, it was so awesome! And each plate had a yogurt, cheese, and chocolate next to it so she made sure we were filled up going into the day! 

Our first night there we pretty much just wandered the city and took some pictures. We grabbed dinner from a place with assorted paninis, and Jeremiah got a Belgian beer called Rodenbach. He thought it was delicious; better than his first beer in London. We also got gelato from a shop that my family had gone to. It was delicious!! Jeremiah and I both fell in love with it I'm pretty sure. The next day, the first thing we did was to rent bikes and bike around the city. We rode the perimeter of the city and saw some old windmills and just enjoyed the nice day. For lunch we got a famous Belgian waffle and another gelato! Both fantastic, and in case you don't know, Belgian waffles are very sweet here, more along the lines of a dessert than a breakfast. 

We also went to the "Friet Museum" to learn about how French Fries came to be! They actually were created in Belgium, but since half of Belgium speaks French apparently some Americans once tried the fries from some Belgians who spoke French and thought they were from France so they called them French Fries. It was very cool, and of course we had to try some "Friets" at the end of the tour. Yum! 

The rest of the day was really windy and rainy and cold!! So we ended up just wandering in and out of shops trying to stay warm! We also grabbed a couple chocolates to taste some true Belgian chocolate! Belgium has so many things they are famous for and I'd say we took advantage of all of those things on our short stop in Brugge. What a cute city, and quite the change of pace from London! 

Next stop - Amsterdam!