The Last Guest Blog....

I’m not sure if Monday was posted so to not repeat I will tell what we did on Tues & Wed.  Jaime worked and Steve & I took a train to Belgium to the town of Bruges.  What a beautiful city….a one night stay was perfect.  We took an 8:54 train from Amsterdam and arrived at 12:41.  We did not have a hotel room booked but the tourist information center there was very helpful.  Of the 250 lodging places in the city only 18 had open rooms (in theory), so she kept calling and updating her computer that they were truly filled or did not take one night stays.  Finally we were able to book one that was only a 15 minute walk from the center of the city!  We walked around to get acquainted with the city.  Of course on Jaime’s recommendations, during our stay we tried Belgium waffles, fries and chocolate!  That night we ate a 3 course menu – Steve had lobster soup (it had an actual small lobster hanging over the side of the bowl) – salmon – chocolate mousse.  I had vegetable soup (a broth with no vegetables) – Flemish stew – a plate of meat in gravy with no vegetables (really tender) and chocolate mousse.  The next day we ate a complimentary breakfast at the hotel and then started our day of walking in the constant rain.  We walked out to the outside of the city to see a couple of windmills and then came back to do most of Rick Steve’s City Walk.  I am so glad Jaime has the book otherwise we would have no clue where to go to see the highlights plus the explanations are great!  The neatest place was the Basilica of the Holy Blood.  It was built in 1150 and has history that goes along with it!  Bruges is so cool – very clean and neat and awesome buildings and markets!  We took the 1:20 train home and arrived back at Jaime’s at 6:00.  Then had dinner at an Italian place near Jaime’s – nothing to write home about.  Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve so we expect to see some fireworks!