WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE D2? PT 10: IN BRUGES

originally posted May 19/11
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WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE D2? PT 10: IN BRUGES

I lied...here is the journal now, instead of tonight!

And the winner of Destination Contest 3 is...Tony P! Well friends,
since the last contest seemed like a piece of cake, the pictures I
chose this time were meant to be tricky, but with a chance that a keen
observer could guess. I even googled that street sign to make sure it
wasn't only used in the place we are in! Mussels indicated Belgium (I
suppose if I added the frites in the picture, you might have guessed
right away). The swans are swimming on one of the many canals - so I
made sure some of the picture revealed that.

I left out the picture of the belfry, which was a key part in the
Colin Farrell movie, "In Bruges" and an obvious picture of one of the
canals which gives Bruges its status as the "Venice of the North."

B-E-L-G-I-U-M

Jos and I arrived in Belgium around 2:30pmish...our plane had been
delayed 30 mins on the tarmac. Don't know why though, since Jos and I
both passed out on the plane! Anyway, we flew with Ryanair and since
we had chosen priority seating, we got first dibs on seats which is
pretty sweet! Jos has long legs so she was able to get seats with more
leg room.

Ryanair flies to Charleroi airport, the smaller Belgian airport. We
took the shuttle bus (13 euros/each) to Brussels midi train station.
Then we had to find the ticket counter to purchase train tickets for
Bruges. It is not very easy to find the ticket counter. The station is
under some construction, but could definitely use some better signage!

We got on the 15:05 train to Bruges and arrived at 16:02. I followed
the directions given to me by the B&B owners. It took us a bit to get
there and it felt like we were going in a giant circle. We finally
arrived and Patrick greeted us. He said he would have picked us up at
the station if we called. Oh well, we need to walk off all the food
we've been eating! kekeke

The house is beautiful and Patrick served us fresh sangria while he
explained the map. He also recommended a few things and told us he is
a retired chef. I read this on the site and all the reviews about the
superawesome breakfast here. Could Jos and I really resist this
opportunity? Good location, great breakfast, comfortable beds at 64
euros....heck yeah!!

We wandered around Bruges taking pics and getting lost. We salivated,
looking through windows of closed chocolate shops. Jos and I now are
using English, French and German to go around...fun times with our bad
pronunciation...oh well! We ate a 15 euro dinner (each). Jos had
mussels and frites with jupiler to drink. I had broccoli and cheese
soup, steak and ice cream with a waffle wedge. So delicious! We went
for another drink. I had a vuvel and Jos had a tripel karmeleit.
Headed back to the B&B and had a nice sleep.

'til the next journal!

-Sam