Bruges, Belgium

Our travel companion, Rick Steves, suggested that Bruges was an especially lovely city so we decided to take the train from Antwerp to explore for the day. 

The Antwerp train station was stunning!

It even had a Starbucks!

The train was quick and easy and before long we were hopping off and heading into Bruges. Have I mentioned lately how much I wish we had train travel like this in the U.S.?

The obvious first stop?
A CHRISTMAS MARKET!

A big reason we came to this part of the world for Christmas was to see their famed Christmas markets. I love wandering around this type of thing--never buying anything, but just taking it all in.

Quite the tower! 

I was able not to buy this entire store.
I wanted to, though. 

The city center was stunning

Naturally, we toured the local cathedrals.

The skinniest depiction of Jesus I've ever seen.

Another view of the city center

A view of the canals

Jackson looking handsome

The city was so lovely

This church was supposed to house a famous
sculpture

We battled the crowds over bridges to get there

We got all the way inside and then...

There was a sign saying that the Michelangelo Madonna and Child was not presently on display. WHAT?!? No wonder it was free to get in! HMPH!

The Cathedral was still pretty

CHI-CHI'S??!

Thinking about lunch...

LUNCH!

We tried a regional delicacy, a Croquette, which was quite good. A croquette is a small bread-crumbed fried food roll containing, usually as main ingredients, ground meat, shellfish, fish, ham, and/or cheese.

We loved the colorful buildings

This shoppe was adorable, but they people
were beyond rude.

Rick lead us astray on the chocolate store, but the place he said to go for afternoon waffles was anything but a miss!

Just a small queue 

Excited for an afternoon treat

Serious business!

LOOK AT THAT MASTERPIECE

We had cappuccinos and a waffle with chocolate sauce and suddenly all of the cold of the day melted away and the world was right again.

Headed back to Antwerp!

We finished our waffles and decided to try to catch the earlier train back to Antwerp as it was getting colder and we'd seen enough of this small, gorgeous city. We moved like rushed Americans through the sleepy town and just made the train.

The train became VERY busy shortly after we boarded.

An entire school of boys got on to go to
Antwerp for a field trip!

These boys didn't know what to make of Jackson!

We eventually got off the crowded, hectic train and hustled back to the warmth of our hotel. By now we really need to do laundry so we Googled until we found a place. The front desk worker was so confused by our desire to clean our clothes that I began to feel nervous about the availability of self-laundry! No fear, nothing a quick trip to a questionable part of town cannot fix.

We got to the laundry place and had to go back out to get the right change. Then we were there as it was closing and the owner was kind enough to let us finish. The neighborhood was downright creepy, but our clothes got clean and we made it back to the hotel safely. Whew!

I mostly hid behind things so passerby folks wouldn't
see two Americans hanging out waiting to be robbed.

I'm in there, you just cannot see me!

Antwerp had some nice areas, but sadly this laundry place wasn't in one of them!