A Belgem

Today Nate and I took a day trip to Bruges. What a pleasant surprise
it was when we got there.

The train took only an hour from Brussels, so we slept in a bit, and
when we got to Bruges it was sunny and warm, quite a change from the
weather so far this week.

I got a Belgian waffle in the station in Bruges with chocolate on top
that was so good I'm not even sure how to describe.

We then made our way to center city where we got our bearings for the
day and went into the church with michaelangelo's Madonna with child.
This is one of the only michaelangelo pieces outside of Italy, and was
as always amazing to see.

From here we went on a brewery tour of the last running brewery in
Bruges. The amount of breweries in Belgium has dropped dramatically in
the last 80 years or so, from 3000 to under 400 I believe was the
statistic. Bruges itself used to have a modest double digit amount of
them, but now only has the one, which is still family owned and run.

It's amazing to hear how much goes into making a beer, and how
passionate these Belgians are about it. They argue that everything
from ingedients used to how it is bottled to how it is served and even
what type of glass it is served in makes a difference for each beer.
And they say it with such conviction that you can't help but believe
you understand what they're talking about, and can actually tell the
difference when they let you taste some of their beer at the end.

After this we did a lot more walking around, a little shopping in gift
shops and chocolate stores, grabbed a light dinner at a pub and headed
back on the train for Brussels.

The city had such an old world feel, and it feels like that on
purpose. We were told while standing on top of the brewery that
nothing can be more than 4 stories tall, and new age "ugly" things are
not allowed to be visible from ground level, like satelite dishes for
tv. There are some canals that provide for really scenic photos, a
couple awesome belltowers, and lots of small quaint side streets that
are frequented by horse drawn carriages. Seriously, the horse drawn
carriages outnumber the automobiles on the streets.

I love day trips that aren't well researched and turn out to be one of
the coolest places you've seen.

Also, hope the title didn't confuse anyone. I know quite well how to
spell Belgium (and even if I didn't spellcheck would correct me) but
it is another one of my poor attempts at a play on words.