Bruges

We caught a train from Brussels, it taking about an hour to arrive. From the station we took a bus to the center of the city. Bruges is indeed a beautiful city. We alighted the bus in the city's central square; a Church tower shot up into the air to a lofty height. All around the square were renaissance era buildings. An open-air market was taking place. One might imagine that save for the few cars that could be seen, the scene did not look too unlike what it might have looked like in 1808, rather than 2008.

One fellow who was colorfully dressed yelled enthusiastically at the crowd for people to buy his wares. Somewhat disturbingly, at least in our views, raw meat was on sale. We're not sure an open-air market is where we'd want to acquire uncooked meat.

Entering a nearby museum and seeing a painting from the eighteenth century confirmed this: most of the buildings we had seen were standing hundreds of years ago.


Today we had decided to go to Bruges, a city to the West of Brussels, renowned for its beautiful, old buildings.
We took a ride in a horse-and-carriage around the city. The guide spoke to us with a thick Flemish accent, pointing out various landmarks. We stopped to give the horse a break by a canal, and watched some people feeding some swans.


We would have also liked to take a ride on a boat through the city's many canals, but we decided that it was rather too cold. Apparently taking a boat ride through the canals during summer is extremely pleasant.

There was one piece of 'modern', abstract art, installed in 2003, but apparently much disliked in the town. People feel that it's an old-fashioned style town, and shouldn't be tainted with this 'new' style art.

Afterwards we walked all around the city's main square, entering some of the many boutiques, and window-shopping past many of the others. We settled on lunch at a tiny, cozy little restaurant.



Here we noticed a difference in terminology. We wanted to eat lunch. We didn't want a three course meal that would leave us barely able to stand. We tried to communicate this to our waitress. She said, "well you can have a snack." We didn't really want a "snack". We wanted lunch. A sandwich perhaps. We ended up each getting a snack. Apparently, two sandwiches with a side qualifies as a "snack" in Belgium. In fact, anything less than a full-fledged three course meal is a snack.
Craziness.

It's also a little strange how in Belgium, one eats their food, and finishes. Then one waits, and waits; eventually someone will come and remove the food. Then one waits and waits, wondering if the restaurant actually would appreciate being paid for the food they have served.
Eventually one is provided with the bill. I suppose that they must think that one wishes to sit and enjoy oneself, idly chatting after the meal.
It can be a nice change from US restaurants, where sometimes one is not even finished eating and the server will place the bill on one's table.

Also, interestingly, in US restaurants one might pay with a credit card, and have the receipt left on one's table to sign. One signs and leaves.
Sometime after one leaves they will collect the receipt. In Belgium, one is generally expected to sign the receipt right in front of the server, and then the server will immediately take the receipt.

It is refreshing that the price on sees on a meal is the price one pays.
Sales tax is included, and the price of the food includes a full wage for one's waitress. In the US, one generally has to account for an additional 25% for sales tax and tipping.

Anyhow, lunch at this restaurant was extremely pleasant. We ate, and then continued on, stopping to shop for chocolates in some of Bruges'
many chocolate stores, and then to shop for clothes. We stopped at another cafe to get out of the cold, and enjoyed a pot of hot chocolate between us.



We also saw another Tintin store. It was closed, but we took the opportunity to take a photo outside of it. We also saw a Pizza Hut, amusingly sandwiched between all these old-fashioned stores.



Finally, we headed back to Brussels after another very pleasant day. The train rolled quickly across the quaint Belgian countryside.

After relaxing for a while in our hotel, we headed out to dinner. We went to the same street as last night to eat: a charming, quaint, cobbled alleyway with plenty of restaurants on either side. Every restaurant seems to have an inviting looking fire burning inside, each with its own appealing but unique atmosphere.

Lisa wanted to eat Italian food, so we chose a nice looking Italian restaurant. We were guided to a seat near an older man who was sitting alone, and he very quickly began talking to us. Apparently he was from England, near London, retired, and rather enjoyed traveling. He was staying in a youth hostel, and was spending several weeks in Belgium. He had already finished his meal, but very quickly decided he would stay and chat with us "just until your main course arrives".

He was very talkative indeed, telling us of all the subtleties of traveling, how his favorite country was Spain, and so on and so forth.
We supposed he was lonely, since he seemed to be unmarried and traveling alone. He had a certain British charm, and he was interesting enough to talk to, so we did so pleasantly enough until our main course arrived, and he did indeed leave.

After a pleasant meal, we retired to our hotel, unsure what we would do the next day. Visiting Antwerp was one option, visiting some museums in Brussels another. We had already decided to leave all other European countries for a future trip.