When we were coming through customs in England, we mentioned to the agent that we were going to Belgium, and he sort of scoffed and said "What are you going there for?" But when we mentioned Bruges, he brightened up and said, "Oh yeah, Bruges is nice!"
Here's how I finally figured out how to distinguish between Bruges and Ghent, because they're similar, but not. Ghent is to Santa Cruz, as Bruges is to Monterey or Carmel. Which is to say one is a slightly larger college town that has some personality, and the other one is a slightly smaller even more touristy town with personality.
It rained almost the entire time we were there, but we still managed to get out and see a few things (and buy some umbrellas).
There was the Picasso Exhibit, where we also saw a roomba-style lawnmower mowing the lawn in the middle of a building that was very old.
We went on a brewery tour, where we climbed a lot of stairs, but the view was worth it.
We did another boat ride, where it poured rain the entire time.
We found an awesome cafe, called Rose Red, with tapas, wifi, and good drinks.
And we couldn't leave without trying some chocolate. There's chocolate shops all over the place, but I checked our Lonely Planet guide and we decided to go to Chocolate Line because it's one of five where the chocolates are handmade on the premises and the guide said it was the brightest and the best.
These were all amazing, and I wish I could remember what was in them. The peanut had some peanut butter, the one with the pig had bacon (and a few other things), and the wasabi one had the tiniest amount of kick. So good.
There was definitely more we could have done, but I felt like the two full days we were there was just enough, especially after all the museums and churches we had seen in London and Ghent.
Next, we headed to Germany...
© Whitney Brandt-Hiatt: All writing, images, and photogrpahy are the property of Whitney Brandt-Hiatt unless otherwise noted.