We spent the day in the beautiful city of Brugge, Belgium. The only thing that I would change about this trip is being able to spend more time here. This could be one of my favorite European cities so far! It's just so quaint and beautiful. It almost did not seem real. And the city is not very big... a perfect walking-city size (if there is such a thing). Also, after 1.5 days in Belgium, a couple of things stood out that set Belgium a part from the other European countries that we have been to. First, I received ice with my beverage at dinner. Second, there were wash clothes in the bathroom! Third, the autobahn was lined with street lights. And not just parts of the autobahn, but the entire stretch (well, from Brugge to the German border anyway). Sometimes it really is the simple things in life that can make your day!
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| Greg and the girls in front of the Holy Savior Cathedral. |
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| Inside the Holy Savior Cathedral. The churches in Europe never cease to amaze me. |
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| The organ inside the Holy Savior Cathedral. |
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| Walking down one of the main streets in Brugge. Cobblestone streets everywhere! |
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| In front of the Belfry (Bell Tower). |
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| Greg and the girls in front of The Burg which is located in the main square. So beautiful! |
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| Just loved the architecture!! It almost did not seem real. |
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| Shot taken while in line to climb the Bell Tower. However, the line was so long, that we aborted this plan. |
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| Town Hall, wow! I don't think a single town hall in the States looks anything like this! |
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| Close up of the detail on the outside of Town Hall. |
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| Just love this square! |
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| Inside the Basilica of the Holy Blood. We waited in line for about 10 minutes to see a drop of Jesus's blood which was inside of a vile and I almost got kicked out while trying to get this picture. Apparently, no pictures! Ooops! |
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| One of may beautiful canals. Wished we could have taken a canal cruise (they were closed for the winter). |
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| So quaint! |
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| Canal-side snack time! |
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| Another canal picture. |
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| Just walking around. |
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| Cute canal cafe. |
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| Leena enjoys the Christmas Market in the main square in front of The Burg. And yes, the Belgian waffles are awesome! |
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| In yet another cute square. |
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| There were horse and buggy rides all over town. |
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| Church of Our Lady behind us. |
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| So pretty! |
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| The girls found this map of the city made entirely of lace! |
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| The Church of Our Lady. |
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| Inside the square in front of The Church of Our Lady. |
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| The canals never get old. |
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| Greg and the girls find a good hiding spot. |
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| Inside a candy shop where they actually made the candy right in front of you. |
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| Sweet girls! |
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| At the De Halve Maan Brewery. What trip to Belgium is complete without a brewery tour? |
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| On the brewery tour. This brewery was first mentioned in the town register in 1564! There were a lot of steep stairs and low ceilings. Really cool place. |
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| A view of Brugge from the top of the brewery. |
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| Another view from the top of the brewery. |
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| Taryn checks out one of the beer tanks. |
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| After the tour, I sampled the beer and the girls enjoyed hot chocolate. |
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| The hot chocolate was sooo good, that it got two thumbs and ten toes up!! |
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| Sweet sisters. Around every corner, the streets looked like this! |
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| Statue built into the corner of a building. We saw several of these. |
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| The girls get a drink! The horses that pull the buggies get their drinks here too! |
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| Hangin' with some swans. |
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| Walking through the courtyard of The English Convent. |
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| Everything in this window is made entirely of chocolate! |
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| More chocolate creations! |
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| The main street at night. |
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| In front of the Bell Tower. So pretty all lit up! |
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| Enjoying the city at night. |
In addition to enjoying the beautiful city of Brugge, we also came here to see the annual snow and ice festival. The festival was held inside a warehouse
that was kept at -6 degrees Celsius (that's 21 degrees Fahrenheit!). About 300 tons of ice were hand sculpted into figures that were themed from Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
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| Of course, there was an ice bar! |
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| The girls had fun on the ice slide! |
We decided to break up the 5 hour drive home by stopping at one of Germany's many beautiful castles along the Rhine River. Only a handful are open at this time of the year. We stopped at Marksburg Castle and unfortunately missed the last tour by only a few minutes, so we were unable to enter (it can only be toured with a guide). Instead, we used the WC and looked around the outside for a few minutes before getting back on the road.
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| Entering the castle courtyard from outside. |
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| The castle as seen from the courtyard. This is as close as we could get. We were very disappointed. |
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| The view of the Rhine River from the castle. |
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| One last look before we head home. |
