This morning we said a long good-bye to Gertrud in Hoofddorp and started out a long travel day. James flies out tomorrow morning from Gatwick and we had to get back to Horley and stay at the Lawn before too late.
It wasn’t only travel, though. We went to Brugge, Belgium for part of the day. And, it was a great decision. Too bad we had such little time there, as I really enjoyed the city a lot. I’m going to have to start being careful, though, as I would say that Brugge is a city that I could spend a lot of time in. That thought has come up about every city though! They all have had excellent things about them worth experiencing for an extended period of time.
I did like Brugge a lot, though, not to minimize it. It was like a little mini Amsterdam, Bern and Rome all rolled into one. Mini because the city is very small. Definitely a walking city. It’s like Amsterdam because of the canals and some wide sidewalks. The architecture is similar in some cases too. Like Bern, everything is pretty clean and the streets and people look similar, and all the signage is similar for some reason. There was something that made me think of Rome while I was there - I think it was some of the narrow streets. There certainly wasn’t the amount of people and traffic we experienced in Rome, but both James and I agreed there was some flavor of Brugge that reminded us of Rome.
The chocolate and the beer are what set it apart, though! And the Michealangelo Madonna and Child sculpture … Our mission in Brugge was really just to buy some Belgian chocolates, take a quick look, maybe have a beer and be on our way. We did all that, and had a great walk. We also ate at The Flemish Pot, which is an interesting pancake restaurant. I think everything they serve comes with pancakes, but I didn’t inspect the entire menu. I had a “savory” pancake meal of 3 pancakes sprinkled with parsley (or some other nondescript herb), a small salad and a chunk of goat cheese wrapped in bacon. James went light and had the apple pancake. Both were good, I was stuff and we were done with lunch in Brugge.
Not much else to report about Brugge though. Well, the chocolates are astounding, but we didn’t even try them until the next day, and I’m editing this several days after … I’d like to visit the city again for longer and in better weather!