Tour de Belgium

Peter picked me up from the hotel Sunday morning at 9am. It’s the first time that I didn’t even have to walk to the car that would be driving me somewhere. Quite the treat. He had packed snacks and drinks and more of the gross drop candies. I gave them one more shot, and I think they tasted worse than the first time I tried them. I’ll be sure to put some in each of your stockings.

We took off through the 4 mile tunnel and headed to Brugge. I found another lighthouse on the way…Peter graciously stopped for that…but I decided not to bother him with yet another windmill picture. I also made him stop so I could get photos of perhaps the largest horse (could have been part elephant, I’m still not sure) I’ve ever seen. Something close to a Clydesdale (sp?).

We made it into Brugge after asking an old man out wandering which direction to go…then we used my handy compass. It’s so easy to get around in these countries…they have signs point in the direction of every little town. I’m really not sure why we stopped to ask for directions.

Brugge is beautiful. Definitely the best city I’ve been to. The canal bridges are lined with ivy. I can’t say enough about the architecture…so amazing. The buildings are outstanding. The city square (markt) was turned into an ice skating rink…so pretty. Sinter Klaus came this weekend here. He comes on December 5th (but I guess they celebrate the nearest Saturday from what I can gather…it must help the last minute shoppers out since nothing would be open any other day).

I ate a Belgium waffle with hot caramel, tried one of their hot dogs, then I had pancakes. I felt like a kid at a carnival. It started raining while we were there so we got in the car and decided to head off east in Belgium. The next stop was Gent (pronounced Hint). It was another quaint town, but a little bit larger than Brugge (or more commercial is maybe the right word). We didn’t spend a whole lot of time there, it was still raining pretty good. Then we shot off to Antwerp. We walked all around the city…through the diamond market. It’s world famous for the diamond industry there.

We ate at an Egyptian place for dinner. The shwarma was very good. After that we headed back for Middelburg. I was shocked that the drive back only took us an hour. It seemed like we had traveled so far away. I was back at my hotel by 7pm after a day of visiting 3 cities in a different country! It was awesome.