Belgium

I didn't actually know anything about Belgium before this trip aside from the fact that they make good beer and chocolates. So when we started planning this trip, I assumed that we'd be heading straight for the capital of Brussels. That was before we met the president of the Newtown Jets on King Street one sunny Saturday afternoon. He very quickly filled our head with stories of the small town of Brugge. Apparently it wasn't worth our time going to the Capital, Brugge was were it's at. A few google searches and a browse of the Lonely Planet website seemed to backup his theory that if we were only spending a short time in Belgium, Brugge is where we needed to be!

Although it was very pretty, Brugge was nothing like I was expecting. While we walked down one of the canals I commented to Alice that it felt a little like Amsterdam. However, after finally making it to the main street, it very quickly became clear that it was WAY smaller than Amsterdam. There also seemed to be a much higher tourist / local ratio. In fact, it's become so overcrowd with tourists that the locals have grown to despise us. At least that's what the map from the Tourist Information office said. Also unlike Amsterdam, there actually isn't much to do in Brugge. A few days there and you would be bored out of your brain!

Regardless of all that, it was a very beautiful place. The city is lined with cobbled stones, they have a small canal system running around the city centre, the old buildings were in immaculate condition and the shops were pretty cool too.

On our walk through the centre of town we past quite a few chocolatiers but one in particular caught tour eye with their amazing window display.

In the afternoon we decided to sample some of the local beers at a really nice pub on the water. What really drew us in was their "wall of beer" which is exactly what it sounds like. Around 700 different bottles of beer displayed in a glass cabinet that spanning about 10 metres in length.

We spent a few hours there relaxing in the sun, eating chocolates we'd bought earlier, sipping on some delicious cherry beer and watching the bored tourist go past on their canal cruises haha. An awesome way to spend an afternoon.