Trip Day 4 The Fairy Tale City

So after leaving Munich we managed to make our way up to Belgium. We had heard good things this leg of the journey sounded like it was going to be the most fun. Our train pulled in early in to Brussels early in the morning, but we immediately got on the first train to Brugge. Now from all that we had heard and read, Brugge was supposed to be a picturesque city that almost seems like a fairy tale. As our train pulled into the station, we knew immediately that everything we were was merely an understatement. Brugge was the most gorgeous city I had ever seen. After some of the places I have seen in Europe, that is saying a lot. We wasted no time because we had a lot of city to see, and not a lot of time to see it. As it was sunny out, the first day so far in our entire trip, we decided to walk. Under archways and over canals filled with ducks, geese, and swan, all of which were far too accustomed to being fed and came right up to us expecting food, we found a quaint little square called Begijnhof. A quiet little neighborhood that served as a convent for many years. We continued up the street, finding a nice little pub that sounded quite appealing so we stopped in for a beer from the country that is renown for the best beers in the world. I would have to say, they were pretty good. We continued to the towns market square where took in some great sights. By this time it was nearly noon, so lunch sounded good. We had read in our travel guides of a nice place that has some good beer, so we figured what a good place to eat too. The pub was called De Garr. It took some looking, but we did find it. It is in an alleyway, far of the main street. It honestly looked like we were walking into someone's backyard, but low and behold, the door said De Garr. Once we were inside we instantly knew we were not in a touristy place. We were, in fact, the only tourists there. We ordered one of the house beers and tried to find something to eat. As it turns out, they don't serve food there! After finishing the beer, which wasn't really to my liking, we headed back to the main square to grab some food. We had only a little amount of time left before we had to head back, so we came up with a couple things we wanted to do. First we climbed to the top of the Belfort, all 366 steps. The view was fantastic. It was started to get late and we had much more to do. Although we did not have time to get to the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which contains a phial believed to contain a few droplets of Christ's blood, we did step into Onze-Lieve Vrouwekerk. Unfortunately there was construction and we were not able to get up close to Michelangelo's Madonna and Child statue. I made a feeble attempt to take some pictures from afar, but they did not turn out very well. It was finally time for us to leave Brugge and head back to Brussels. We caught the train and were off. Although the time in the fairy tale city was short, it was fantastic.