Belgium & The Netherlands - Part 1

It's shameful really. I'm a little afraid to show my face here after such a long absence. That said, I will try to catch up on the last couple of months and redeem myself to this little blog of ours.

Waaay back in May, we took a long weekend and road tripped through Belgium and the Netherlands. We've grown a little weary of touring old churches and museums and agreed that this trip, we would simply enjoy the cities where we stopped along the way and not burden ourselves with too much culture. We didn't even book hotels so that we could be totally free to stay or go wherever and whenever we wanted.

We set out for Brugge which is about a five hour drive from our house. It is a super-quaint little city on the Belgian coast which is often referred to as the "Venice of the North" with its many canals. We took a short canal boat tour on which our college age guide gave perfect commentary in four languages - English, German, French and Spanish. Okay I don't know if his French and Spanish were perfect, but his English and German were pretty darn good.
We hung out in the market square which is quite the happenin place to be on a weekday afternoon. All of the cafes were full and the square offered lots of great people watching.

This is the belfry which is pretty much the dominate site in the square. We could have walked the 366 steps to the top for what I'm sure are some great views of the city. But we've sort of been there, done that, so we saved ourselves the climb.

The thing I will remember most about Brugge is dinner. This was truly one of the most amazing meals ever! We went to Rock Fort on our guide book's recommendation. I took advantage of our proximity to the coast to have a little fish (since seafood is scarce in most German restaurants). Tarbot in Mousseline Sauce with asparagus and snow peas and whipped potatoes.....I'll never forget it. Steve had pork cheeks on the owner's suggestion and, while I was a little grossed out at the thought, they were really really excellent.

The next day we wandered around some more, shopped chocolate, and made this our lunch.

Then we headed north to the Netherlands.....more on that later.....promise.....