Sept. 13 - Bruges, Belgium

Lo-Lin and I had agreed to go to Bruges for a day when I got back from Dubai. On the plane back to the EU, In Bruges was showing on the flight. Hilarious mob movie based in Bruges with Colin Farrell. I highly recommend it -- plus the movie was shot in Bruges, so going there after seeing the movie was fun (he was shot here!).

Bruges is a city that still has much of its medieval architecture and is what I remember as being "classic Europe" in my grade/high school textbooks. I think they took every picture from German castles and Bruges and put them in the textbooks. The city is stunningly beautiful and is filled with canals. Wandering through the city, you could tell the people there tried to keep it "the old way". I highly recommend going there for some relaxation.

A couple of the highlights

• The Belfry of Bruges. For 5 Euros a piece, we went up the 366 steps - luckily stopping at points in between. The stairwell starts wide and then narrows so that only one person can go up (or down) at a time. A logistical nightmare. I imagine many people have taken a spill down those narrow stairs. The views were amazing and the bells started going off as we got to the bell tower (my ears rang all day).


• Canal tour. I've been on the ones in Amsterdam before and this way, by far, better. Open boats through the canals let you see an inaccessible side of Bruges.


• Friet Museum (and Chocolate Museum). I liked the friet museum (potato fries) way too much. The museum showed the history of the potato from its North American roots all the way through today's friet shops. It was fun, cute, and, at the end, delicious. We had some fries - mmm good. The Chocolate Museum was neat for historical value, but way overcrowded.

Now, for some pictures. 27 pictures
This first picture was taken in the morning.