Belgium

Back in 2009 when we went on our Honeymoon 28 day backpacking adventure through Europe we stopped at a place called Brugge in Belgium.  Our Rick Steve's guidebook told us that 1 day is adequate for this town so we did just that.  The problem was I was sick the whole day and it happened to be Monday. On Monday everything is closed! (very common throughout Europe)  So Mike always said we will just go back and see all the things that we missed. So we did! 2 years later we stayed in the same hotel on the canal and we saw everything that Brugge has to offer.

Bike riding on the canals

Brugge is featured in a Colin Farrell movie, "In Bruges".  It's a sleepy town near the coast of Belgium and about 30 minutes away from Brussels.  It's a place that was forgotten for a bit and because of that still has a lot of it's small European town charm. It's also called Venice of the North for all it's canals.

Madonna and Child by Michelangelo 

climbing the bell tower

So how do you get there you might ask?!?!  Well Mike and I drove 2.5 hours through the UK to the very bottom of England. Gas is really expensive here but our Panda gets something like 60 miles to the gallon. Unheard of gas mileage in the states. We took our car on a Ferry from England to France. Only a 25 mile trip but by boat took 1.5 hours and costs about the same as the Cape May ferry in Jersey.  Once across you drive back on the right! (woo hoo - for me. I love driving on the right!) Then we drove from France to Belgium which is only about an 1.2 hour drive.  Once in town we ditched the car at the train station parking garage for 1.5 Euro and rode our bikes the rest of the way.

Chocolates
 So what is there to see and do in Brugge?!?!?  Well lots of stuff: Biking the canals, visiting the bell tower, visiting the only Michelangelo sculpture to leave Italy in his lifetime, visit Jesus's Holy blood relic, visit the Chocolate museum, visit the local brewery, visit several art museums, take a canal boat ride, visit the flea market and the square and don't forget to eat the Frites, Moules and Chocolates. 

Frites

Moules - aka Mussels

So we finally got to see everything that we needed to see. And then we drove back to France and took the ferry back to England and drove home. All in one weekend - Done and done! If you ever have the opportunity to go to Belgium I highly recommend it, not only for the amazing selection of Beer with high alcohol by volume but to see an authentic European town that has older architecture than anything there is in the US.