Day 17

Monday, August 13

7:15am CET - woke up. The alarm went off at 7:30 and we went down to breakfast at 8, where Amanda discovered little cups of Nutella. She was quite happy. We each took a tub to smear on our croissants, haha!! Otherwise, I pretty much at the same as yesterday and was again stuffed.

8:30am - made our way to Gare Central via 2 stops on the subway and bought our tickets for Brugge - 24 euros return. Seems odd that a one-way ticket is 12 euros and no discount for the return ticket. Ah well, I wasn't going to come to Belgium and miss Brugge! Just caught a 9am train, which was pretty much full, and took about an hour or so to get to Brugge.

10:00am - arrived and found that the tourist office in the train station is closed on Monday. How convenient. So we left the station and walked to the main tourist office - maybe 10 min or so. Got a 50 cent map out of a machine, which was helpful. Made our way to the main area (everything in Brugge is mostly within about a mile radius of the center) and stumbled upon one of the canal boat companies. Caught a boat tour leaving in about 10 minutes so we got our tickets for 5.70 (the prices of all the companies are the same).

10:50am - took the 30min or so boat tour - the guy leading it was so funny and interesting and he did the whole tour in both French and English. It was great to see Brugge from that way (and also to rest the feet for a while LOL) - going under the old bridges was real neat and he explained things well. He was a funny guy so I tipped him 2 euros.

11:30am - walked around the town for a while doing a Rick Steves Brugge city walking tour. We caught the major church, Church of Our Lady, with Michelangelo's Madonna and Child statue, which was neat I guess but reaffirmed my complete ambivalence to art. Found a "fast food" place for lunch - I had fried chicken wings which were really tasty and had been marinated/spiced with something good, and fries for a whopping 5.75. The fries were good but after the ones we had yesterday… nothing ever again will compare LOL

1:30pm - after lunch, walked around a bit more, found some of the main shopping streets and browsed. Went into the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which had been closed earlier… it is a church with 2 chapels and the lower one was creepy (see pics). Visited some more chocolate stores (of course), and found an ice cream place called Da Vinci which was recommended in Rick Steves's book - normally I wouldn't specifically seek out an ice cream place, but in the book he specifically mentions that they make Ferrero Rocher ice cream and that happens to be Amanda's favorite candy, so, we had to find it. And really it was all he made it out to be. Fun place, teenage girls behind the counter who were nice and let you try the flavor before ordering. I had "Baci" flavor - aka modeled after the Italian chocolate and hazelnut candies - it was soooooooooo creamy and soooooo delicious. And only 1.20 a scoop (about the same price as prefab Good Humor-esque ice cream). And in my cup they put a little round piece of a "waffle" cookie - I guess because when you order a cup you don't get a cone? Anyway it was a nice little touch and a nice little end to lunch yummyyyy.

2:30pm - walked around a little more and saw some more of the side streets of Brugge when we finally made our way to the Begihnhof, a religious courtyard, which was pretty and quite peaceful We ended our day at the Minnewater lake/park which was a pretty and relaxing end to our day in lovely and adorable Brugge.

4:15pm - Made our way back to the station and found a 4:35pm train leaving for Brussels. We were there 10 min before departure but there were already no seats left in 2nd class wtf!! So we just sat in a little alcove between cars until the first stop in Gent, where so many people got off that it opened up seats. Finally made it to Bruxelles Central around 5:30 and instead of going back to the hotel we just got off and walked towards the Grand Place area because there are so many restaurants. Wandered around for a little while looking at places and some things in the area we hadn't yet seen.

6:30pm - We decided to go Italian because even though that area is touristy and not with the best food, there were plenty of italian places on the outskirts of the heavy restaurant area so we found one that was a little outside that area and less expensive. I had spaghetti which was good but spicy! Anyway our meal came to under 20 euros including tip, so can't complain really.

8:00pm - came back to the hotel and on the way amanda wanted to stop for a diet coke. Well the way back to the hotel from the Grand Place area we pass the two big main supermarkets which are down the block from each other - well, they both close at freaking 8pm! So near the hotel we found a smaller version of one of the stores (the one we got lunch in the day we arrived), that one was open until 8:30 so she made it and got her soda with a few minutes to spare. Came back to the hotel and I did some laundry. Luckily there are plenty of hangers here so hopefully it will be dry by the time we go to Amsterdam in a couple days.

9:30pm - after laundry, we ate the Neuhaus chocolates I bought yesterday. Amanda had the tiramisu truffle and I had the "Amer truffle" - bitter chocolate with chocolate shavings, and a cappuccino cream thing, both of which were out of this world (well for about 70 cents a piece they should be, but they were worth it I must say.)