"In Brugge"...

Gary found his happy place yesterday...on the train from Amsterdam to Brugge!  The man who hates to fly, sure loves to travel by train!  We took the high speed train from Amsterdam to Brussels, then switched to a local train from Brussels to Brugge...each train was 1 hr.   By the way, this photo shows how we are traveling...small suitcase and small backpack (with electronics, toiletries, gifts, jacket, etc.  I think this system is working well...I love the backpack and find it very comfortable, Gary is not sold on it, I'm afraid.  We arrived at the train in Amsterdam (it actually left from the airport) with about an hour and a half to kill.  Well, we killed so much time, that we almost missed the train.  Gary had gone off to look for some mustard or mayo to put on the sandwich he had made on gluten free bread at the hotel and I suddenly looked at my watch and saw that the train was boarding in 1 minute.  I texted him, in a bit of a panic, and he came back and we made the train (barely)...but in my panic, I also texted poor Joe Baem and I think it was roughly 2am in California...I am so sorry Joe!

Anyway, we made it to Brugge and it is LOVELY!!!  I am afraid I'm going to fill my phone up because I keep seeing quaint things to photograph!

We are staying in a B&B here...and I don't really know why!  In 2001 we had a really bad experience in the English countryside at a B&B (something about a broken bed, a broken computer, me in tears...it was not a good experience!)...and it kind of scared me off ever staying in one again.  But, in a moment of weakness, I took Rick Steve's advice and booked a room here:

 It all seemed good on the outside, but when we entered we saw these stairs...we were not graceful or quiet going up 2 flights...but we made it!  (The steps are only abut 6" deep on the deep side...not easy to navigate with a backpack and suitcase!!)

The bed was super comfy, the room was nice and large...and we soon found out the breakfast spread was lovely (only downside was that there was no gluten free bread for Gary so he had to make do with only fruit, yogurt, meats, cheese and chocolates....poor guy!)

It was a communal table and we had very pleasant companions, 2 sisters from Minnesota traveling together, and 2 couples (the men were brothers) from Winnipeg who were going on a bike/barge trip in a few days...we all shared travel stories and it was pretty delightful, I have to admit.  I loved the owner of the B&B telling us how years ago when her mother ran the place, Rick Steves just knocked on the door and asked if they had  room for the night.  They became friends...now she says Rick has so many people working for him, and they come frequently to check on things and to see if they should still be giving it positive reviews.  (I love the idea of my old pal, Rick, back in the day, doing all his own research :-)

OK, Let me just get this out of the way...I love Tintin and I had forgotten that the author/illustrator of this wonderful cartoon character, Hergé is Belgian, so I have seen several Tintin sightings which make me very happy! In case you don't know, Tintin is a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy, solving mysteries and completing adventures. (Charles de Gaulle once said that the "considered Tintin his only international rival"!). I loved reading his "graphic novels" as a child and still have a few of them!

Brugge is so darn beautiful...I felt as though I had to stop every 10 steps to take a photo of something cute, quaint, beautiful, or delicious!  The best thing we did here was take another free walking tour and this was our best one yet!  Our guide, Louis, was a 67 year old, native born  Brugger (?!).  Our 2 hour tour ended up being 3 hours, because Louis was a natural born story teller.  We learned so much about the history of the area...and it was really interesting.  He wove stories together and just kept us all so interested. He had some funny things he said over and over:  "of this I can assure you", and "my city of Brugge" (it was never just "Brugge"), and he referred to his wife several times as "my lady"...as in "Do not buy lace in this store, it is not made by hand, of this I can assure you.  I know very well, because my lady makes fine lace, like this lace swan on my hat".

The master story-teller, Louis!

It was really cold...we had to bust out our head wear!

I love the heart in the bricks!

So many of the building had interesting things...if you only remembered to look up!

In many ways, Brugge reminded me of Venice, in that if you followed a winding little street it would open onto a little plaza...follow another winding little street and it would lead you to another plaza, and on and on!!

3 things that there is no shortage of in Brugge are lace, chocolate (Louis says he stopped counting how many chocolate stores there are when he got to 90!) and beer.  The people of Brugge take those 3 things very seriously.  In fact, their oldest brewery in town, The Half Moon or De Halve Maan had a very creative solution to a problem a few years ago.  Their brewery is located in the center of this medieval town with no possibility to expand.  They had room for their brewing operations, but not for a bottling operation.  They crowd funded and got enough money to fund building 2 underground pipes (one for each of their 2 beers).  These pipes go through town and out to a new bottling facility outside of town.  Bars (and homes!) located above the pipelines can tap into the beer lines and get beer (not free, they do have to pay!).  However, people who paid into the original crowd funding campaign DO get free beer for life!!

A cut out in the street shows the 2 beer pipe lines!

But it's not all beer and chocolate here...they have a Michelangelo Pieta here...the only Michelangelo sculpture to leave Italy during the artist's lifetime.  It is in the church and they are so very proud of it!

I had 2 magical moments in 1 day here in Brugge!  I opened the curtains in our bedroom and saw the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen...each stipe of color was so clearly defined, and I could see all 180 degrees of it over the city rooftops! (It had faded in color a bit by the time I quit squealing and grabbed my camera/phone)

The second magical moment was when we were walking home from a great dinner on the other side of the little town, we rounded a bend in the canal and I was intrigued because I had noticed photographers set up with tripods.  I wandered over to see what they were looking at and this is what I saw:

The buildings were illuminated beautifully, and made beautiful reflections in the still water...suddenly a bevy of 25 swans came floating around the corner, circled for a few minutes right in front of us, and then turned and floated away!  It was just amazing to see!  (And Louis had told us why they have swans in Brugge...ask me about it sometime!)

This delightful little city captivated me and I would urge you all to go here...I felt that a day and a half was all that we needed...and it made a great stop between Amsterdam and Paris!