Bruges

 

I could continue my new blog with an entry about everyday life, but isn’t a trip description more interesting?

This trip celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, which happened a year and a half ago. Not that we didn’t celebrate it at the time, with a couple of small parties, but that’s another story.

I really wanted to go to Venice, but that would have involved more time, vacation time, airplane hassles, and of course, money. So, we went to the Venice of the north.

Bruges was great. Simply delightful. Four days before, I had a bad migraine crisis. So, I cancelled everything for the next three days and rested up.

We drove up on a Thursday, taking about four hours including traffic and a rest stop. It turned out that the hotel was more expensive during the weekend, so Issam took Thursday and Friday off of work. The hotel was great- a couple of hundred yards from the Market Square. Before going out, I had a cup of tea and a bite of what I thought would be fried shrimp from the hotel bar. They were really breaded balls with bechamel sauce with a slight shrimp taste. That turned me off from a possible future restaurant visit.

The only drawback of the trip was the food. Having lived in France for a quarter of a century, and being married to a wonderful cook, I’ve become a snob. Yes, the waffle was good. Yes, the Belgian chocolate was good, but more like a bonbon than the chocolate I am used to. I have to admit, unless I run into a French chef abroad (which we do in Ireland), I can’t expect the same food.

Back to Bruges. The city is very compact and walkable. We learned very quickly to look out for the bikes. They’ll run you over if you aren’t careful. But they obey traffic laws (excluding priority to pedestrians!). Furthermore, with so many bikes, there are far fewer cars. So, one can walk on cute, Medieval, cobblestone streets. The city is very compact so it took us a maximum of fifteen minutes to get anywhere.

I suggested doing a walking tour. Issam wasn’t keen, and when I saw they lasted two hours, I changed my mind. We did our own walking tour. You guessed it, between “chocolatiers”, or places where they make chocolate on the premises. We managed to go to four, getting eight pieces at each stop. Issam chose fruit flavored and me, pralines.

We did do two very touristy things: go on the obligatory canal boat ride and go on a horse and buggy ride. Both were delightful.

Thursday night we went to a gourmet burger place. Unfortunately, Belgium has cooking laws like the US: beef has to be well done. But the barbecue sauce and spices were good, as were the nachos.

The next night, we went to an Indian place. Issam had lamb madras and I had dahl, nan and rice.

We did fit some culture in- a trip to their museum of fine arts with primitive Flemish art and one Van Eck.

We left in the rain Saturday morning and as we headed south, the sun some came out. A few hours later, we were at the most beautiful city in the world.

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