Brugge

Everyone said we had to go to Brugge, which is known as the Venice of the North.  Or if you're from Brugge, Venice is the Brugge of the South.  Brugge is in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium.  Hooray - another language I don't speak or understand!  It all worked out though, as everyone we encountered spoke English.  It seemed to me as if Dutch is a language sort of in between English and German so if I couldn't understand things with the English part of my brain I'd let the German part try to figure it out.  Even though Brugge was all the way on the other side of Belgium, we went and I'm glad we did.  Belgium isn't that big so it only took a little over an hour to drive there.  We spend more time than that driving to and from church each week.  Before we went into the actual city of Brugge we kept driving east until we found the sea.  Other than going to the Children's Museum in Brussels, the beach was the one thing that Samantha really wanted to see while we were on vacation.  Despite the fact that it was cold and windy, we went to the beach.  We didn't make it all the way to the water, but we could at least see it and that counted for something.  Plus, the girls collected so many seashells; way too many seashells.  I'm secretly hoping they get "lost" sometime soon!  Samantha and Natalie kept saying "She sells seashells by the sea shore" and then dying with laughter.  It was cute and annoying all at once.  Our kids are really good at being simultaneously cute and annoying; it's a talent.

See?  We almost made it to the ocean, but that bar of water stopped us from going any further.

After spending about 45 minutes in the sand, we were all cold and in need of something to warm us up.  Thankfully, there was a little bar/restaurant close to where we had parked so we went in looking for hot chocolate.  It was just what we needed and such a nice treat to sustain us until we could find more waffles and fries.  

Abigail was especially cold because she's sacrificed warmth for fashion and was only  wearing a cute little cropped corduroy jacket instead of a real coat.  At least her scarf helped keep her a *little* bit warmer.

 After we finished our hot chocolate it was on to the main event of the day, Brugge.  I was super excited to find a great space in the parking garage - parking our van is my biggest source of stress when we are out and about.  We came out of the garage and found that we were directly across from the tourist office.  It really doesn't get more perfect than that.  So we got a city map, and headed off to see what we could see.

Our first stop was Our Lady's Church.  We found it by accident and didn't realize until after we had left that there is a statue of Madonna and child by Michelangelo inside.  We did see the statue while we were there, but didn't know the value of what we were seeing.  The church was beautiful and different from any church I've visited in Europe.  Usually the stained glass windows are what give the churches their beauty and color.  In this church, the beautiful painting were what stood out.  The windows themselves were pretty, but the glass was all clear or frosted glass.

This is not the Michelangelo statue, but it is the statue that I found the most beautiful in the church.    I wonder if I'd known about the Michelangelo if I would have taken the time to look at this one?

 Next, we found the main square in town.  We hadn't decided yet if we wanted to go on a carriage ride or a canal ride to see the city, but both could be taken from here.

This is the city's bell tower.  Almost every city we went to in Belgium had a bell tower and they were all separate from the church.  In Germany, the bell tower is almost always part of the main church in town.  We didn't go up to the top of the tower, but we did appreciate the clean bathrooms that we found in the courtyard below.    

Madison and Abigail were partners for the day.  They don't always get along - in fact, they almost never get along - so I was happy to see a little sisterly love.  It must have been the influence of the fries we'd just eaten.

I really wanted to take the girls to a candy store I'd read about - La Cure Gourmand.  I was worried that it would be like the Children's Museum and too far away to easily get to, but it was right off the main square on a side street that connected the two squares that we were planning on seeing that day.

The girls loved the free samples or cookies and candy that  the workers were handing out, but what we even better were these lollipops in all different flavors.  I let them each choose four to bring home with us.  

The store was beautiful, bright and colorful.  All the packaging was gorgeous as well.  No plain white paper bags for your candies and cookies, instead they were a beautiful golden yellow with lovely illustrations and lettering.  We ended up buying 20 lollipops, a bunch of cookies, and some salted caramels.  I think the candy store might have been the highlight of the day.  

In the next square we found this interesting structure.  I don't know if it was meant for children to climb on, but the beehive-like structure worked perfectly for that so I let them go for it.  It was a nice opportunity for the younger girls to just play for a little while.  

I loved all the old doors we saw everywhere and really wanted to get a picture with the girls in front of one.  I'm not sure where Samantha came up with this pose, but Natalie had to copy her.  

This was the first canal we saw and it made up our minds for us - we'd be doing the boat ride and not taking a carriage around town.  

I loved seeing all the old building as we floated down the canals.  This one was built in 1614 - can you see the metal numbers on the side of the building?  Also, I liked all the doors that rested just above the water.  It was fun to imagine living in one of the buildings where you could step into your home from your little boat.

The stair-step roof line on these building is typical for this part of Belgium

I thought this building was interesting mainly because it was one of the only wooden buildings we saw in Brugge.  Everything else was brick.  

I'm not sure while I liked more - the flowers or the red door.

Brugge was my favorite city we visited in Belgium.  It was beautiful, there was a lot to see and do, the canals were picturesque, and the people were friendly.  I'm so glad we took the time to drive the Brugge; it's definitely a city I would be happy to visit again.