Doing Everything in Love: In Brugge

While in Germany, our goal is to explore and travel as much as possible.

Traveling by train is simple, quick, and quite cheap.

This weekend brought us to Brugge, a fairly small town in Belgium--all week I dreamt of chocolate, cooler air, amazing sights, waffles, and the finest beer in the world.

I can 100% attest to the fact that Brugge delivered. It delivered indeed.

Michael was able to leave work a little early on Friday so we could have the evening to explore.

That evening, we ate a delicious meal of mussels and frittes

and set off to explore with no agenda in mind.

The city was ours as we wound through quiet cobble-stoned streets lined with canals, marveling over the perfect reflections cast in the water.

It was truly unreal.

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Saturday morning we awoke to a violent storm, which, like most coastal thunderclouds, ended as abruptly as it began.

Let the eating commence!

I waited forever for this old man to move. Finally gave up when Mike started getting cranky.

For 7 euros we took a brisk boat tour through Brugge's canals. The 'tour' was in 5 different automated languages and I felt like a tourist- snapping pictures as quickly as possible before he went on to the next sight. Not one quality picture came out of the ride. But I did take this one before we left...

I love the red trim found on many Brugge facades

More exploring, more beverages to be conquered, fries & chocolate to be consumed.

mmmmm... Delirium...

Beer in a champagne bucket? Don't mind if we do.

As if this posting isn't inundated with enough pictures already-- in the afternoon we tried something 'different' and took a photography tour. Mike patiently waited while I took a million pictures at each stop our guide brought us to.

We learned more about our camera than we have in the two years of owning it!

Cue barrage of attempt at Artsty- Fartsy photos:

This is Fidele. She has rested at this window for 11 years now, looking over tourists on their boat tours and is a bit of a Brugge institution. I did not want to leave this spot!

The doors here are the BEST. One could make an entire photo book solely featuring doors.

First Bump

Later that evening we had the most fantastic meal of (more) mussels and surprisingly, the best spare ribs we've ever had. Move over, dirty south... Belgium has you beat.

And oh, we're still on Saturday so more pictures to come.

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Sunday the weather was BEAUTIFUL

(meanwhile, in Frankfurt, our friends were sweltering with heat in the high 90s!)

We rented bikes and set off for another town only 5 kilometers away called Damme.

The ride was incredible, taking us through tree-lined paths along the canal where swimmers were training for a triathlon.

Cows and sheep lazily munched on grass and watched us as we rode by.

We saw windmills. I'm obsessed.

And we continued to ride.

All the way to Holland, actually

(which wasn't as much of a terrific feat as it sounds. It was only 45 minutes away.)

Ate lunch, turned around and rode back. More pictures of windmills, for now the gray skies had cleared and the resident (GIANT) horse was posing prettily for the tourists.

Back in Brugge, we had just enough time for another beverage and to stock up on all-things-delicious to tide us over until the next excursion, hopefully this winter.