Another day In Bruges

The next day Zac and I got bikes again and headed out.  We started by going to the train station and booking out tickets to Amsterdam.  Zac was hilarious on his bike.  My boy is just too big for this world. 

After the train station we went to a little museum.  I can't remember the name of  it now, but I remember the vast green expanse of vines that completely covered one of the brick walls.  Zac and I thought it was great. This was one corner of the museum's courtyard.  Very pretty!

And me, chilling for a few in one of the courtyard's stone seats.

This is part of the inside.  Nothing too shocking, except for the size of the amazing fireplace I'm standing inside of. 

It just so happened that the museum we were at was right next to a little canal tour stop.  Zac insisted that if we were going to museums, we were going to go on this tour.  I agreed, and again, beautiful sights everywhere.  Here's just a couple shots.

After that we rode our bikes to a little butcher shop on the opposite side of town.  Stopping along the way to take pictures.

At the shop we bough roast beef sandwiches on fresh baguettes, and a Coke to split between the two of us.  It was one of the best things we ate while abroad.  

As I mentioned before, Bruges is beautiful.  Not just because it is so quaint, but because it is also unexpected.  We ran into these two little places while biking along, one is the entry for a little museum, the other sits within a funny triangular space formed by the intersection fo a couple cobblestone streets.  Both made me fall in love with Bruges.  

On our bike ride we stopped at the oldest tavern in town and had a pint.  

We quickly saddled back up and headed to another church which houses the only sculpture by Da Vinci that ever left Italy.  Madonna and Child.

The churches were astounding.  I couldn't stop staring at the architecture.  I would be so distracted if this was where I came each Sunday.

Since Zac and I didn't do the whole unity candle thing at our wedding, we lit one together here.

After a little while we got thirst and were off for another pint of Belgian beer.  

We stopped at a local brewery tour, but were more impressed with the view.  

I absolutely loved the old slate tiles on all the roofs.  

After that we went to grab some real food, not just beer samples.  We stopped at a place that seemed to specialize in fried things.  What kind of things you ask?  I'm still not sure exactly.  We just pointed at the things we thought we'd try.....including Cheesecrack.  

The cheesecrack didn't exactly do it for Zac, so then we went for the stereotype, WAFFELS and they were amazing!!

We shortly headed back to the hostel for a nightcap and a not-so-good game of chess.  There's no good way to develop a strategy when you can't remeber how each piece can move. 

 We loved Bruges, we really did.  From the dirty hostel, even dirtier patrons, the amazing scenery, the delicious ice cream and waffels, to the hard bike seats and worn in church pews.  It was exactly what I expected, perfect.