Brugge , Belgium

After our last day in Paris – we left for Belgium to once again meet up with our friends (Jeff & Jenn, Jeff & Susan) for a long weekend.

We made a stop in Brussels for lunch and a quick walk through the old town on our way to Brugge. The main square in Brussels is just beautiful and we really enjoyed our lunch where we had our first Belgian beers – a beer flight with three versions. Susan and I then of course had to partake in those wonderful Belgian waffles. They most definitely are worth it (I'm calling them the Belgium version of cotton candy - sooooo sweet and yummy).

On to Brugge…

We really enjoyed catching up with friends here in the mid-evil town of Brugge.  We did have a bit of an issue with our hotel and that needed to be rectified, but as Susan said - "it's all about the adventure!) - so no worries and it all worked out okay.  Although the weather was not perfect, we enjoyed our boat ride on the canals and learned much about the old city.  Funny a town of that size has 18 churches and 300 Madonnas.  Scott made every attempt to capture every Madonna we saw in the city on camera, so apparently we'll frame them all when we get home.   The weekend was all about:

1) the Flemish stew (the most wonderful stew served at the Vlaamsche Pot)

2) the Frites (there really is something to double frying the fries here - wow!)

3) the chocolates (oh, how to choose between the tens of chocolatiers)

4) the waffles -- again, wow!

4) of course, the beers (hundreds to choose from).  Scott was in heaven as was I for that matter.  My new favorite and I was surprised to find that the fruit beers here are a dream, much less the abbey and trappist beers.  And they all have their own special glasses as well.

So much history as much of the buildings date back to the 1500s and even earlier in some cases.  We moved on to Ghent for the afternoon before heading off to Scotland tomorrow.  Unfortunately, we spent the afternoon planning the next leg, so our only time in Ghent was when we headed out for dinner.  We ate at a wonderful restaurant however where I was more focused on the circa 1100 building than anything else.

Off to Scotland tomorrow - our first couple days in Edinburgh and on from there.