Bruge Day Trip

After a pretty normal week Keith and I decided to head up to Bruge (Bruges, Brugge, however you spell it) on Saturday to continue our Belgium experience. Before we headed out we printed a map and a brochure we found that suggested a walking tour of the city. It was only about an hour and 20 minute drive through beautiful countryside to the heart of the city. We were really lucky, although still pretty cool outside, the rain had finally decided to let up for the day. We came up out of the parking garage in the middle of a city right out of Busch Gardens. A bustling gorgeous little town. We decided to start where our tour suggested, however once we realized that each little street was amazing, we just decided to put away the map and do a little exploring. We ducked down a little side street to find an adorable courtyard filled with cafes and shopping. (Any ladies interested in shoes and purses Bruge is the place to be!) We ambled down a few more streets, passing cute shops, and fantastic architecture. Just so everyone knows, it's not a rumor, there is chocolate in Belgium, lots of chocolate in Belgium, and Bruge seems to have some of the most creative, cool chocolate I've ever seen. We of course thought it was our duty to get a sampling of some of the sweet temptations, just to compare of course :)

We continued to stumble around and found the Grand Place, which looked a lot like all the other city centers we've seen so far but for some reason it just doesn't get old. We decided to pass on the over priced lunch in the city center and searched for something a little more tucked away. We found a neat little place in another courtyard that had horse drawn carriages pulling tourists around. Weird to be some place so crowded but still peaceful and relaxing, a hard experience to describe. After a couple of mid-day beers Keith and I discovered a whole other way to view the city with a canal ride. It was amazing, it was like discovering an entire new world. This canal was significantly smaller than those in Amsterdam, which made it all the more charming.

Honestly Keith and I both enjoyed this trip more than our time in Brussels, it was just a much more interesting city for walking around. It was great to be able to do all of that and still be home to spend the evening with Bailey. She still needs to do some work on her "controlled" walking before she is invited on these kinds of trips, so Keith and I are planning to spend some time with her in our local city square for practice. Of course things were back to normal on Sunday, rainy and cold :)