Contrary to what most believe, the French Fry was birthed in Belgium, not France. But they speak French in Belgium, so there you go. So, my last trip was to Bruges, Belgium. It was fuhreeking cold but really pretty. Our travel group started out being 4 but poor Stephen was puking the whole train ride and by the time we got to Luxembourg we decided we needed to insist he go back for his own good. He reluctantly agreed from his pale-faced fetal-position on the train station floor. Poor guy. We were all going to turn around and go back and maybe take a small day trip but at the last minute Mary and I decided to go on to Bruges by ourselves. To get to our hostel room we had to walk through this restaurant-bar that served really good Flemish stew and cherry beer (my new favorite!). There were arty-looking sacred hearts all over the place as decoration. Mary and I got up early the next day and walked ALL over Bruges. I'm pretty sure we walked about 20 miles that day. We saw the entire town and took a million pictures. There were huge old windmills along the outside of the town and a river that ran alongside them. There were canals all over the town and during the warmer seasons you can take a boat ride in them. We went into an old cathedral and saw a sculpture by Michelangelo. We of course, ate fries and Belgian chocolate. When we walked into a particularly cute chocolate shop the lady at the counter got really excited when she found out we were American and started asking us if we knew Rick Steves. Then she pulled out her own copy of his travel guide book, which was tabbed to the page that had her store in it, and showed us in writing, Rick's personal approval. I must admit, Rick's got some good taste. Those chocolates were amazing. We tried to find the World's Best Hot Chocolate that our friends had told us about but no matter how hard we looked we couldn't find it and instead ended up getting some disappointing (but cheap!) watery hot chocolate to go from a quick place. Then we went to these 2 fry stands that stand about 20 feet apart from each other and compete for the best pommes frites (Europeans really like to put mayonaise on their fries which I find disgusting, so I opted for the curry ketchup). French fries are my favorite food but I have to say I've had better. They were good though. Then since Belgium is supposed to be known for its lace Mary and I stopped in this tiny little house-turned-lace-shop run by these elderly women who made all the lace by hand themselves! It was really impressive.. Not to mention really expensive. One night Mary and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner (well nicer than the fries and waffels we'd been eating all weekend). She got salmon and I decided to try mussels since they were advertised all over Bruges. I was sorely disappointed. They tasted like mushy ocean. Gross. Next time I'll get salmon too. I took a million pictures on this trip! It was great but good to leave the northern cold and get back home to Heidelberg.
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