Smackie the Frog

As the trip winds down, I find myself very tired, and not very inspired to write detailed posts about what happened on such and such day. So I apologize for that. But it is hard to keep up the same level of excitement and enthusiasm for 8 days. At this point I’m kind of just tired and overwhelmed. I can’t really take in any more stimulation right now, and even though I have had a really amazing time, it will also be nice to get back home. So, for Bruges, which was actually the second best part of the trip, right behind the soccer game, a bullet point list will have to do.

- Driving in Europe looks like it is a pain in the ass. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Bruges, and probably close to half of that time was spent just trying to get across Brussels. Once we were on the motorway, it was fine. But when you are actually in the cities, you are screwed.

- Bruges (Brugge) is maybe the most beautiful place that I have ever been. Frans said, and he is correct, that it isn’t Disneyland, it is real. But you can see that this is definitely what Disney is going for in places. Except there is something way more amazing about being someplace that is actually 600 years old, as opposed to someplace that was built 40 years ago to look 600 years old.

- The Church of Our Lady in Bruges is the most beautiful church I have ever been in. And without realizing it, I saw a statue by Michelangelo that is in the church, but I was so overwhelmed by everything else in the church, it was hard to focus on any one thing.

- I had an amazing lunch of garlic mussels and fries. You have to love a country where you get a big pile of fresh fries with every meal.

- Some chocolates were purchased. And I think some of them will even make it back home without me eating them.

- The art museum in Bruges that we went to was much more civilized than the Louvre. Smaller and much less crowded. You didn’t constantly feel like you were about to get run over by a large group of tourists.

So yeah, overall I really enjoyed Bruges. And it definitely made up for me missing Amsterdam. In fact, I think that I would have been very sad had I not gotten to see Bruges, or only gotten to spend an hour there or so. For a plan B, it was not a bad one at all.

Then today was Gent. More on that later.