Bruges: Filled with More Waffles, Chocolate, Beer, & Fries With Mayo

We headed to Bruges, Belgium on Sunday, December 28th.  We were pretty excited about this trip, as we had friends who traveled to the same spot.  We were looking forward to meeting up with them a few times.  Before we even arrived to the hotel, we saw them walking the streets.  Talk about a small world!  We LOVED our hotel in Bruges, the Crowne Plaza, as we had an amazing view and they upgraded us to a suite!

 View from one of our hotel room windows

We ventured out into the city, to find the Belfry Tower and a giant plaza area where there was yet another Christmas Market.  I have lost count on how many Christmas Markets we have been to at this point.  We walked into a pub to have a couple beers and some great burgers.  We stopped in 2be Beer Wall, which had many different types of beer on tap. Although, I will always think of Belgium having some of the best beer I have ever tasted...I also had one of the worst ones too.  It was cherry flavored and tasted like cough syrup.  But I pushed through and even finished it!

 Belfry Tower

Beer Wall

We were able to walk around the city before meeting up with our friends at a pub and explore the city together at night.  We also went into Dumon's, a great chocolate shop.  Jeff and I just finished the last piece last night...so good! We enjoyed our time with friends, and probably had a little too much fun in Bruges as the beers were very strong!

 The Jo's

 Bruges gang

 Some of the amazing chocolates

The next day, Jeff and I woke up to explore the city more. But first...street waffles for breakfast! We walked through The Beguinage, which used to be known just as a peaceful area, now a monastery.  They had signs in the area that asked for silence.  After walking through this area, we made our way to the edge of the city next to the canals and to visit the windmills.

The monastery

 One of the many windmills

We headed back towards the city centre and explore a few other areas of the city.  We made our way back to the plaza area where I grabbed a plate of fries with mayo as that is a delicacy there in Belgium.  It was pretty good, although maybe a little too much mayo for my liking. Jeff grabbed a snack from the market, some large dish with potatoes and sauces all over it.

A beautiful museum behind us.

Known as the "Best View" in Bruges

Beautiful canals

Next on the list...we grabbed a beer at the Historium Brugge, which had some of the best views of the city.  We timed it right, by accident as the sun was setting and we had a great view! We tried a couple new beers, then met up with our friends again for dinner.  We enjoyed dinner and tried a few pubs afterwards, and then headed home as we were all heading back to England the next day.

 Sunset over the markets and ice skating

 Belfry Tower

Jeff's shrimp pasta with a few mussels on top.

The next day was Jeff's Birthday!  We woke up to climb the Belfry Tower, 366 steps to the top! We made it to the top and were able to hear the bells chime a beautiful little tune.  We finished our time in Bruges grabbing ones last treat...chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva. Yum!

 The Birthday Boy!

View from 366 steps up

Since we had time before our turn on the Euro Tunnel, we went to a coastal town, Blankenberg.  It was only a 25 minute drive, and you could tell this area would be packed in the summer.  The boardwalk was lined with restaurants and shops.  We walked out on the pier, and went down to the beach to put our hands in the water. We have officially touched the North Sea...although it was freezing cold.  It was definitely weird having a coat, boots, gloves, and a hat on at the beach.

 So windy & cold, but definitely worth it!

 I gave Jeff a beach vacation for his birthday...ha!

 

On to the next adventure...

Living the Royal Lifestyle

After our great visits to both Glasgow and Stirling we headed off to Edinburgh.  Not a new place for Jeff as he had visited here for work before.  I was super excited to check another Scottish city off my "To Visit" list.  Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but my parents planned their trip partially around the fact that Jeff had Monday off for a bank holiday over here.  They were able to spend some more quality time with him, and we were able to get a bigger trip out of the weekend since we had 3 full days! Which meant...2 full days in Edinburgh.

We got in Edinburgh late and enjoyed the Fringe Festival that was going on during our couple days in Edinburgh.  It was just by luck that this huge comedy and street performer festival was going on the same time we were there.  We were wondering why it was so hard to find a reasonable hotel in the city centre. We were able to see quite a few performers and give them a few pounds.  Jeff and I have a rule that if you watch a street performer for more than a minute, you should give them money because they provided you with some sort of entertainment and they deserve to be paid.  So needless to say, we coughed up a few more pounds than we normally do because we were enjoying the acts so much.

 Comedy and street performers

We grabbed a quick dinner in the place with the least amount of wait time due to the large crowds.  We attempted to walk near the Edinburgh Castle to see it close up at night, but we were unable to due to a performance happening nearby.  We made it back to the hotel (well, actually we rented a small apartment) and rested before we had yet another long day of touristic attractions!

Since Jeff had visited Edinburgh before, he had already visited the castle, so he didn't feel the need to visit it again.  My mom, dad, and I walked to the castle and spent about three and a half hours exploring and enjoying the castle grounds. We really enjoyed the different rooms, reading facts about the castle, and spending time with one another.  I think my dad could have spent a whole day in the castle as he was loving all of the history.  Who knew he was such a history buff? I think one of our favorite things, or at least one of my favorite things was the view from the castle.  We were able to see the coast, islands, and of course the town of Edinburgh.

 Edinburgh Castle

 I really liked this part of the castle. Very sweet!

 The castle offered a lot of different exhibits and had some interesting rooms. The second picture had a variety of weapons hanging on the walls.  

 This was one of my favorite sections of the castle: Prisoners of War 

 Some snapshots of the view!

 

 The rations of food prisoners received. Note the Americans were thought of as pirates and did not receive as much food as the others. 

After the POW area, we went to jail...

We met up with Jeff after our castle visit, and grabbed a bite to eat at a local pub.  We all explored the menu, and then headed down the Royal Mile to the Holyrood Palace.  I think when we all think of castles, we think of what a palace looks like. Gold, finest finishings, and beautiful portraits on the wall.  I think "HollyWOOD" helped us believe that.  It was nice for my parents to see the difference that castles here were really used for war and safety whereas palaces are the fancy decorated places where royalty lives. Least that is my take on it.  Anyways, we were unable to take pictures inside the palace, but each room was decorated beautifully.  We each had a free audio guide, so we were able to learn more about the uses of each of the rooms where the Queen of Scotland lived.

At No. 1 pub. 

 The palace up close.  Look for the picture from King Arthur's Seat where you can see the bird's eye view. 

 A photo in front!

 The courtyard inside the palace.

An former cathedral stood here attached to the palace. 

Outside the palace grounds, you can see King Arthur's Seat (hillside in the background)

Afterwards we walked around the city, grabbed a milkshake, and headed back to take naps...well the boys took naps.  We grabbed dinner together, and then Jeff and I went out exploring solo.  We walked around the city, snapped some photos of the buildings lit up at night, and stopped in a whiskey bar called...Whiski Bar to have a pint and Jeff had a glass of whiskey.  There was a local band playing, and they were pretty good.

Edinburgh at night

The next morning we woke up with our walking shoes on and heading up King Arthur's Seat to see the beautiful views of Edinburgh.  Dad, Jeff, and I trailed up the hillside to get to a smaller peak. My mom sat this one out as she had hurt her knee in a minor walking accident.  No worries...she was just sore. Walking up the hillside only took about an hour or so.  We didn't make it the the largest peak as I didn't have the right shoes on. Hmmm...yet another pattern here. Fashion over comfort. 

 You can see how much of a drop it was!

 The Holyrood Palace

 We made it!

 Great shot of my dad

 The walk down is always harder than the walk up...

Jeff's "Living on the edge" 

We had a great walk up to the top, and headed back down to get on the motorway to head home.  Normally the drive would be about 5 hours, but we hit a lot of construction and it took about 6.5 hours.  We were all ready to get out of the car, but definitely enjoyed the views of the coast.  We even stopped to snap a few pictures.  My parents were amazed at the fact that nothing was built along the coast as it was all farming fields and undeveloped land.  It was just a shock, as in the states you can't find a spot on the beach where there aren't restaurants, shopping, or rows of housing.  All in all, a great first weekend traveling.  We accomplished so much in a short amount of time.

Onto the next adventure...