In Bruges

Bruges feels like a very long time ago but i'll do my best to remember everything we did. We stayed at a place called Snuffle Hostel for two nights which wasn't the Busabout pick up point so we had a 20 minute walk to our hostel, luckily there were no hills!

Our hostel (our room was the one on the second floor on the left.

We arrived about 2pm i think the first day and after checking into our 4 bed dorm room (you had to go into a bar, up some cubby house stairs, into a hallway, into a 12 bed dorm room and then into our 4 bed dorm room) we set off to get some lunch and have a look around the town. We had our first taste of the famous Belgian Pomme Frites (Fries) which were pretty good, although probably no better than chips back home. We had them with tomato sauce not the traditional mayonnaise. we spent a little while wandering around chocoalte shops, Ewen loving all the free samples. We tried Belgium Waffles which were delicious! I kind of wish Belgium was our last stop so i could bring some home for everyone to taste.
We went to a Salvador Dali exhibition (an artist Ewen likes) which was interesting, lots of freaky drawings.

Here is the church where they keep the Jesus blood

After this we went to a church where some of Jesus the mans blood is kept. It is on a cloth (we didnt see it though) kept in a cabinet. Once a day they get it out and put it on a different pillow then put it away again.

In that silver cabinet is the cloth with the blood on it

And apparantly once a year it gets paraded around the town and everyone stops work at bows down. Interesting stuff.
This is a tower (built in 1240) in Markt Square. We tried to climb it (you are supposed to have really nice views of the whole town) but it was closed for maintance. This Belfry tower was originally used for spotting fires (some mans job to sit at the top and watch the horizon i suppose) one day the little man could smell smoke but couldnt see a fire, turned out his own tower was on fire. (This was 40 years after it was built) They went ahead and rebuilt the tower but this time they added a wooden spire to the top and put a statue of a saint on it. This was hit by lightening in 1493 and the tower caught fire again. they replaces the wooden spire but then 200 years later it was hit by lightning again and the tower caught fire. after this they learnt their lesson and stopped putting up spires.

A canal, they have a lot of these here
Me and Ewen on a bridge
The next day we went on a bike tour around the town. We saw both the main squares (Markt square where the Belfry towe is and Burg square where they keep the Jesus blood), lots of bridges and canals, some windmills

we saw the lake of love

We also saw a lot of churches and old cobble stoned streets and then had a free beer (well Ewen did) at a pub.

A canal with buildings built right on it

It was a nice way to see a lot of the town we wouldnt have seen if we were walking.

Ewen with our bikes

Not sure what this building was but it looks really nice with the moss growing on parts of it.

After the tour we went and got some lunch, Pomme Frite again, this time we tired them with mayonnaise. it was interesting, it doesnt taste antything like mayonnaise at home. It had herbs in it and tasted more like sour cream and onion dip. It wasnt bad but it wasnt awesome either. not too sure what all the hype is about with that one.
After this we went to the chocolate museum. They had a lot more information here than i thought they would have. they had rooms telling you all about the cocoa bean and how it used to be used as a sort of currency.

Ewen trying to steal a bag of cocoa beans

They had rooms explaining how in the 17th and 18th centuries chocolate was only for the rich and elite people and they used to have choclate parties. Downstairs they had chocolate making demonstrations with free samples. They also had a lot of statues and sculptures made from chocolate.
Including.....

Yep all made entirely out of chocolate and yes this last one is President Obama...

After the chocolate museum we went and chilled out in a park for little while before going in search of a lolly store i had read about, after finally finding it it turned out to be closed. After this we went and did our laundry (fascinating i know)

Playing games while we waited for our clothes to be washed (This is what a laundromat looks like in Belgium for anyone who is interested)