Side trip tp Brugge

Today we made a side trip to the town of Brugge. It is an old and beautiful if somewhat heavily traveled by tourists. We had our first experience with the SNCF trains today. They were fast and efficient like the Thalys trains. The train station at Brugge was under construction so our first impression of Brugge was not overwhelming. The bicycle racks outside the train station were very impressive however. I have never seen such a sea of bicycles. It was really cool to see that they were having a Jethro Tull concert in Brugge and really uncool to see that we would miss it. The streets of Brugge were very nice, clean and scenic. However the town squares were the most attractive. We realized that we were in Brugge, but these mussels were from Brussels and we liked them. Our daughter was very brave to order some Mussels. The next item on the agenda was to climb the clock tower in the square. There were over 300 steps to the top but fortunately there were several stops along the way such as this little museum. Part way up the view was the best for looking at the town square. At the top the view was the best for looking at the city. You could also see the mechanism of the clock work as the bells rang every 15 minutes. From the top you could see historic and modern windmill throughout the town in operation. You could also see the canal wind its way though town carrying boats full of tourists from all over Europe. We then took one of the canal rides ourselves. It was similar to what we would imagine that a boat ride in Venice would be like but the boats were very fast. There other thing about Belgium is that they love their dogs. We saw dogs on the street being walked all the time, dogs on the train and even dogs in our tour boat. Being dog owners ourselves we thought that this was a very good idea. The ride along the canal was very nice with many old and beautiful homes. On the trip back to Brussels we may have accidentally ended up in first class. This was OK with us. I noticed that the second to last stop on the Subways was named for the famous Belgium cyclist Eddy Merck. Since I am a cyclist it is very easy for me to love this country. The metro soon brought us back were we went out to an excellent steak fondue dinner. And even better, Belgium beer. So far Chimay and Leffe are the favorites that I have tried.