Today we taught Liesel a new trick -- two destinations at once! I wanted to stay away from the big highways she would prefer and decided to tell her we were going to Den Haag (The Hague) first, then to Brugge -- worked like a charm except for a spot where what I thought was a bridge with a big water view turned out to be a LONG tunnel with no view what so ever.
The scenery throughout the drive was much like we've seen before -- very flat, pastoral, wide spread farms, still very green, but most of the corn has been harvested. I was surprised that there were so many 4-lane highways though Holland and Belgium too, although I began to appreciate them when we got to the Belgian version of a country road: a single wide-ish lane for two way traffic. Sort of like home without the hills and curves, but still scary when a full-sized bus came the other way. Luckily, there were no deep gullies next to the road, just more flat land with trees.
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| Belfry in Markt Square |
Brugge (also spelled Bruges -- the French version, not favored here) is a beautiful old town that even on an October Saturday was filled to the gills with other tourists. There were an astounding number of places to buy genuine Belgian chocolate or to get a Belgian waffle. The hotel staff was very helpful in providing a walking route through the best parts of the old town, much of which was built in the 1300s. The weather, despite forecasts to the contrary, was glorious and sunny with barely a need for a light jacket. We set off with a goal of buying chocolate and exploring the town. After two chocolate stops, we started to get the idea that this would be overwhelming. We went into at least a dozen shops with a variety of price ranges from ridiculously expensive to almost reasonable, places that made all their own chocolate on site to places that were like chocolate supermarkets for other people's chocolates. We saw chocolates in all kinds of shapes --- even high-heeled shoes!
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| Shoes of Chocolate -- full-sized! |
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| Brugge Alley |
We found a chocolate museum and bought a dual ticket for that and for the french fry museum (really!) at a discount for being seniors. The Choco-Story Museum told how chocolate evolved from an unsweetened drink of the Central Americans to the major industry that it is today. Belgium got into chocolate early because it was controlled by Spain about the time that the Spanish brought chocolate back from America, and their design strategy was quality, not cost.
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| Burg square church |
From there, we proceeded on our map tour, and saw a pastry shop near one of the old buildings we were supposed to find. They had skinny little eclairs and we decided to see how they compared to the eclairs from heaven that we had found in the Marais in Paris 12 years ago. They were not quite as good, but the best we have had since Paris, and tomorrow we'll go back for seconds.
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| Wok musician |
In our wandering around, across canals with boats and birds and between beautiful old buildings, we encountered an unusual musician. He was creating lovely bell-toned music on what looked like upside down woks with several big dimples in them. We arrived just as he was finishing one lovely song, and I hung around a bit hoping he would play again so that I could make a short movie of the music. An organ grinder started playing nearby, and when he did start up again, I didn't get a chance to film much because he saw me and said something that didn't sound friendly.
By the time we finished the walking route, it was getting late, so we went back to the hotel to relax a bit before setting out for dinner. We got advice about dining from the hotel staff (there are TONS of places to go, but we really didn't want to just fall into one of the touristy places). When we got there, we found it didn't take credit cards and it looked like dinner would cost more than we had left in euros. Nearby, we found two more options and settled on the one that did not specialize in oysters. We each chose a prix fixe menu. Mine started with a soup that looked and sort of tasted like pea soup. I am a big fan of peas but have never liked pea soup. I think it is the texture and the bacon that put me off. This was lighter, and actually tasty and I concluded that it must have broccoli in it too. The staff concurred -- a pea/broccoli combination that was easily the best pea soup I've ever tried. Dessert was a tiny dark chocolate mousse -- enough chocolate kick to take care of me for a couple days, I think. Unfortunately, although they did take credit cards, they could only handle the European kind with a chip, which meant it was lucky we had enough euros to cover, but just barely. We don't want to buy a lot more with the trip coming to an end, and won't be able to go to a bank til Monday (its Saturday now) and don't want to take the ATM hit of fees for a $100 withdrawal. Let's hope we can make our last 25 euros last til Monday!
After that, it was back the hotel. Tonight is the end of daylight savings time in Europe. I set my travel alarm back an hour, but left my watch and phone alone, figuring the results in the morning might help me determine what time it really is.
The scenery throughout the drive was much like we've seen before -- very flat, pastoral, wide spread farms, still very green, but most of the corn has been harvested. I was surprised that there were so many 4-lane highways though Holland and Belgium too, although I began to appreciate them when we got to the Belgian version of a country road: a single wide-ish lane for two way traffic. Sort of like home without the hills and curves, but still scary when a full-sized bus came the other way. Luckily, there were no deep gullies next to the road, just more flat land with trees.
By the time we finished the walking route, it was getting late, so we went back to the hotel to relax a bit before setting out for dinner. We got advice about dining from the hotel staff (there are TONS of places to go, but we really didn't want to just fall into one of the touristy places). When we got there, we found it didn't take credit cards and it looked like dinner would cost more than we had left in euros. Nearby, we found two more options and settled on the one that did not specialize in oysters. We each chose a prix fixe menu. Mine started with a soup that looked and sort of tasted like pea soup. I am a big fan of peas but have never liked pea soup. I think it is the texture and the bacon that put me off. This was lighter, and actually tasty and I concluded that it must have broccoli in it too. The staff concurred -- a pea/broccoli combination that was easily the best pea soup I've ever tried. Dessert was a tiny dark chocolate mousse -- enough chocolate kick to take care of me for a couple days, I think. Unfortunately, although they did take credit cards, they could only handle the European kind with a chip, which meant it was lucky we had enough euros to cover, but just barely. We don't want to buy a lot more with the trip coming to an end, and won't be able to go to a bank til Monday (its Saturday now) and don't want to take the ATM hit of fees for a $100 withdrawal. Let's hope we can make our last 25 euros last til Monday!
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