Bruges

-- pictures from Bruges --

The next stop along the way... Belgium. Bruges manages to be a gorgeous quiet small town, despite being the number one place for tourists in the country (helps that we were there in the middle of December).

Highlights include... the chocolate museum, climbing the Belfry, cheap soup at the oldest pub in town, Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate, fancy raspberry beer, the Flemish masters art gallery, how most shopkeepers spoke Flemish, English, and French, and (of course) wandering around.

I remember walking around, on my own, across this rather picturesque bridge. This French couple approached me and the girl asked me to take their picture (she asked in French, and I actually understood her). I nodded, took the picture, she said "merci," and without thinking, I replied "no problem." Totally caught her off guard... I got a strange look for that. Good times.

Bruges is one of the most quaint places I've been, especially with Christmas decorations up. Highly recommended.

And no, I didn't go there because of the film. I swear, I got asked that a dozen times (there's a recent film called In Bruges that is supposed to be good, but I haven't seen it)