Castles

It was Saturday morning and Jeff had one more meeting in Amsterdam, after that we had the whole weekend to spend the together. Now, some of you may not be aware of this but I have a slight Walt Disney World obsession (I’m not the Princessey, Mickey Mouse ears wearing type of Disney fan, I’m more of the fine dining,  Drinking Around the World in Epcot type of person) so when I realized that we were a mere three hour train ride from Disneyland Paris, I started plotting a way to get there.

I’ll take a park view room, please

I know what you’re thinking, it would be crazy to travel all the way to Paris and go to Disneyland instead seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre! People, that’s just what Disney does to you.  But alas, it soon became clear that it would be way too expensive an endeavor for just twenty-four hours in the parks.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle would have to wait for another day. Zut Alors!

I had done so much research on how to get our butts to Disneyland Paris that I really didn’t have a good plan for the weekend. A couple of colleagues of Jeff’s mentioned that Bruges, Belgium was a beautiful place for a romantic get away, so we decided to rent a car and drive on over. I am a bit of a controller type so going on a trip like this without knowing much of anything about our destination was challenging for me.

The drive across the Netherlands into Belgium was quite bucolic, all farms and fields, very peaceful, but as  we were nearing our destination in Bruges, I was beginning to regret our flying by the seat of our pants. It looked like a nice suburban town, but nothing to write home about. Then we approached a walled section of the city and drove through an archway to find this:

Tadah!!!

Bruges is a city suspended in medieval times. Picturesque market squares, dreamy canals and old whitewashed houses; It was like driving onto a movie set.

Map of the fortified City of Bruges

Statue Of Jan Breydel

All around there was a unique din of church bells, voices and the “clip, clop” of horse drawn carriages. Jeff took this  Video of the Market Square so you can get a feel of it.

Medievel Catholic Church

Jeff totally sneezed so loud in here! Talk about church giggles.

 We walked around a bit and stopped for some  Moule Frites and of course, beer.

Mussels and beer, Belgium's national treasures

We sat right next to a hen party (the European version of a bachelorette party)

The rosé wine was flowing

After lunch it was time for our room to be ready so we checked in to the Crown Plaza Hotel. From the outside it just looked like a small bed and breakfast, but once you entered it was actually a full size, modern hotel.

Crown Plaza

View from our room

We took a “disco nap” and then set out to see more of the city. We went on  a lovely canal boat ride, just gorgeous views.

Canal Boats

This looks like a good place for a smooch

The language situation in Belgium is fascinating. They speak Dutch, French, German and English. This makes things quite interesting. The canal tour guides have to say the same schpeel in four languages. Our guide was an over achiever because threw in some Spanish too!

This mustard packet illustrates the language insanity

All of the stores and vendors around Bruges must be highly regulated because there were no tacky souvenir shops or grungy street performers like you would see in Amsterdam (no offense Amsterdam, you know I love you). Most of the shops are either chocolatiers or purveyors of fine lace. I did, however, find some very naughty chocolates:

Note the gift suggestion in four languages. Here Dad, I got you a chocolate arse!

Let's not forget about mom!

The only type of street performer we ran across was this pair that made a Living Statue .

Living Statue

In the marketplace there is a whole row of restaurants where we had had our lunch.

Restaurant Row

But for dinner I wanted to go somewhere quiet and romantic.  It stays light way past ten o’clock so although it felt early it was actually getting late enough that restaurants were closing down their kitchens. This was becoming a situation here. We finally happened upon a little hotel that had a funky back garden bistro. Just what I was looking for!  We had delicious crab cakes over fresh herb salad, a variety of tasty tapas and of course, Frites!

Notice my left hand holding back my right from snagging one of those crispy won ton thingies

We wandered our way back to our hotel but not before we ran into this:

Of course, a marching band .

One of the reasons that I love going to Disney so much is because when you are there, you feel like you are separated from the rest of the world, but spending time in a place like Bruges makes me realize that there is a whole world out there that I want to connect with.

But I’m still keeping my reservations for my next trip to  Walt Disney World.