Bruge

Tuesday, 4 july

We picked up the car in the morning (ah, at last we could get the backpacks off our backs).

we decided to do a tour this tiùe so we wouldnt get lost on our bikes again.

Drove for several hours & arrived in bruge around 6pm. Checked into a really cool medieval style hostel (St Christophers) which was only 10 mins walk from city centre. After wandering the city we went back to hostel to the bar for dinner & drinks before retiring. it was a great social atmosphere & we were able to xchange stories with other travellers also staying there.

Zednesday, 5 July

'pls xcuse my typing as the letters on the french keyboard (here in bordeaux are all out of place)

We woke up Wednesday & took a bike tour around town... we decided to do a tour this tiùe so we wouldnt get lost on our bikes again.

We rode our bikes up the Napolean Canal (built by napolean suprisingly enough). The canal goes for 25kms to Holland but is unfinished as Napolean went off to fight battles & died inthe battle of Waterloo so was unable to finish the canal. We rode 5kms up the canal to the little village of Damme. Back in the day Damme used to import Herring in a big was. We were told about the legend of the black dog which saved the city from the canal wall callapsing (will tell you about that in person) and also the story of the town rebel (similar to Robyn Hood) who was eventually captured and killed (but not before he was granted one wish)... will also tell you about that one later.

We left Bruge around 3pm and headed for Brussels. Arrivved brussels around 4;30 & checked into the hotel we booked at the last minute. It was pretty bad &in the wrong part of town. We had a brief visit to the Grand Place & had Mussels in Brussels (one place ran out of mussels which we were pretty surprised at) & we bought belgium chocolates (YUMMMMMMMM)