In Bruges

Actually, I am not in Bruges right now. We are back in Brussels, actually able to take advantage of the free Internet here. The problem with hopping around from Internet cafe to Internet cafe in foreign countries is that you have to get adjusted to the different computers and keyboards and what not. Anyway, we just found out that there is apparently a fifteen minute limit for the Internet, which Im sure they could have told us about earlier. Anyway, I think that means that I have to make it somewhat fast, even though I donèt think there is anyone waiting for the computer anymore now that Mia got kicked off of hers.

First things first though. I cant access the USB port on this computer, but I uploaded the first thirty pictures from this trip onto webshots yesterday http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563858240JYrIEI. There arent that many compared to how many we have taken, but whatever.

Anyway, today was our day trip to Bruges, which apparently is arguably the Venice of the North. I say arguably because I told Gianni this earlier and then he found out that Wikipedia refers to Amsterdam by the same name and got mad at me. Whatever, there are a lot of canals, narrow streets, and the like. Its a very pretty and preserved medieval town, where most of the buildings go back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

We took the 1105 train to Bruges (which was very packed as Bruges is the big tourist spot here in Belgium) and got in around noon. We walked out to the center of town, but got distracted by many things along the way. So, this is how our day went.

First, we started walking to the center of the town, but I wanted to go explore some of the stuff off to the side first, so we derailed from our original destination. Then, we found a street full of hippy esque stores (they appear to be very popular in Bruges) and spent a long time in all of them. Mia and Gianni bought stuff. I got a headband because the one I have been using hasnt been doing it for me.

Our next stop was the Church of our Lady to see the Michaelangelo Madonna and Child statue, which is one of the only (if not the only) Michaelangelo statue that can be found outside of Italy. We took pictures with the canals, and I have regretted not forcing everyone to go on one of the canal boat tours (but Im sure everyone, especially Andrew, would have been upset).

We wandered around the streets for a while. I almost got hit by a car turning into a small alley that I was walking down. We decided to eat lunch, and got more fries. yeah, not the healthiest stop, but they are so good.

After lunch, we found this horse statue that our map thing told us was cool for whatever reason. We did end up seeing a lot of swans. One attacked Mia, which was kind of funny. So, yeah. Mia wrote about the gross fluffs of swan down that was EVERYWHERE, so I wont go into that.

Next, we went off in search of nuns. There is this place called the Beguinage, where a bunch of nuns live. Gianni and Andrew got Testamint gum (no, really) and wandered around the small area, but there were no nuns in sight :(.

After this, we finally started making our way to the center of town, which was very pretty. We took a lot of pictures there, and thought briefly about climbing the Belfry to get what was supposed to house a great view of the city. We would have done it if it were not for the fact that we just spent a lot at aforementioned hippy stores.

Next stop was the Basiclliica of the Holy Blood, where you could see Jesus blood. It was hiding behind the tabernacle when we got there, so we didnèt get to see it.

Ill finish the rest of the Brussels post later. The bartender is yelling at me to get off the computer.