Now we head to Bruges - I have heard very different opinions of Bruges, from it's the best, to skip it entirely. Here's a summary of we did during our three nights there...

So Bruges was a pretty cool place I thought. Popular with photographers! Almost everyone had an SLR.

We jumped around in the streets for a bit, just for fun.

One of the best things about Bruges was the food. There was a lot of it. Their beer was also excellent!!

Freakin' yum.

Oh yes. Went back for more of these three times.

These are examples of three different types of architecture, on the right is old, in the middle is really old, and on the left is crusades.

My shop!

This is the Lake of Love, and a registered kissing spot in the Bruges map. 

This is a "horse"

We went to the chocolate museum, keep that first sentence in mind...

Just look at that snobbery. Ridiculous.

We fed a duck with bread stolen from lunch. He was pretty great.

They sure don't make them like they used to. This face is nearly three times older than our government...

Went to an amazing basement pub, this all up was around 15euro, one of these bottles alone cost that much at the International Beer Shop in Perth. They are all around 9-11% alcohol too. It sneaks up on you...

Bruges people were real dog people. This guy was too old to walk, but still liked "seeing the sights" his owners claim.

One of Michelangelo's works, one of the few to leave Italy. Was okay. 

The churches here were all really focused on death and repenting etc etc. Check out how impressed these Angels were with our sins...

Bruges was v. pretty. This is the view from the top of a brewery operating since the 19th century. Very nice, they brew all of the Brugges Zot beer seen all over the place in Bruges.

Cambrinus was the king of beer!

Some awesome food (and beer!) here, that stew put some hairs on my chest. Good stuff. Audrey's slightly alarmed face was in response to some noisy, obnoxious Americans getting wasted and talking politics at the bar. They were even in white sneakers. Ridiculous.

Belgian metal wasn't great. The crowd here were mainly middle aged, and their dogs.

This is where they apparently keep a vial of Jesus' blood. Taken from Jerusalem in one of the 12th century crusades. See what I mean about morbid churches?? The people working here were very strict about us being quiet...

All up Bruges was probably my favourite place. Very chilled out, good food, great people, etc.

We stayed at a B&B run by Maria. A typical Italian Nonna, made us ~3 egg omlettes, loaves of bread, meat cheese, homemade jams and pots of 'espresso' coffee - almost force fed some English tourists who couldn't quite say "No, I am full" to her - she just kept filling up their plates. Hilarious. On our first day she literally planned our entire trip - she pulled out a map and drew all the places we had to go and what to do, great advice. On our last day we got her whole life story, very touching stuff. Had a great time, and very very much recommend the place. 

We have now arrived in Brussels itself, staying in another amazing B&B with rooms about the same size as our apartment. Built in the 1800's for aristocrats - it'd be perfect if the neighbours weren't doing renovations. Oh well, still very nice. 

We'll be exploring Brussels for the next few days, till we fly to Nottingham for my seminar. Yaaay...