2013_05_17 Bruges and vicinity

Early on this morning the weather forecast was for rain in the afternoon (4:00).  Imagine that!  The vast majority of the group wanted to do a long trip to the North Sea (33 miles round trip).  Somehow the idea of going to the ocean in a rain storm was not a good thing!  So a group of 6 of us decided to do just a portion of the trip and turn back much sooner to see a bit more of Bruges.  

Here's the group at the start of the ride.

Along the path to Damme - this is the outskirts of Bruges

Damme City hall building detail

We got to the town of Damme (The Dog town).  Apparently, long long ago there was a big storm and a bunch of flooding.  The townspeople heard a dog howling against the wind.  The town people blamed the dog for the storm and flooding.  So they killed the dog and stuffed him into the dike to stop the flooding.  The storm stopped so they thought they were correct in their logic.  A lot of sad stories were told about the "good old days"!

We stopped to look at the city square and a church.  Big church for such a little town.  The splinter group started back towards Bruges by a slightly more meandering route IN THE RAIN!  Yes, it had started sooner.

We got back to the boat just before noon - had some lunch and headed into town.  We took the bikes to town and were stopped by "no bikes here" signs although nobody BUT us seemed to pay attention.  We locked up our bikes and went on foot.  First stop lunch for the others.  Strawberry crepes for Connie and Richie, Bobi had banana crepes and Carol had tomato soup.  Hot chocolate for me!  Bad deal - no WIFI in this restaurant.  

View of Bruges from the bell tower

Went to the central area of the town and we decided to walk to the top of the bell tower made famous in the movie In Bruges.  336 steps up to some wonderful views from the top of the tower.  Traipsed back down and headed back towards the bikes.  I raced ahead to a "free' WIFI place I had seen.  It turns out you had to buy something (another hot chocolate) and I was able to read my emails.  I tried to message Sarah and Mackenzie but they didn't respond.  I told them we would be in Brussels tomorrow and we would try again if and when we had WIFI.

I actually went back to this place later in the afternoon and the girl working there didn't charge me again.  What a sweetie!  Still no connection with Sarah.

We had our last dinner on the boat tonight and everyone said their good byes to the crew members.  Salmon puff with salsa garnish, white sole with mashed potatoes and chocolate brownie. We're supposed to be packed with suitcases outside the rooms by breakfast.  The crew will start moving our bags outside while we eat.  

10 to 15 minute walk to the train station - we already bought our tickets to Brussels tonight ahead of time.  27.60 Euros (less than half of what I was told). More chocolates!  

Grabbed 150 more Euros from an ATM so we're stuffed with cash. We still have to fill an envelope with tip money for the crew members and a bit more for Tom the bike leader.  Like I said, more chocolates.  Also, we have cash for lunch and diner tomorrow as well.  If we don't spend it all we'll exchange it back for $ at the airport.  

We hope to be in our hotel in Brussels before noon tomorrow.  The trains takes 1 hour 10 minutes from Bruges - we hope to take the 9:36a.m. train.  Our hotel in Brussels is supposed to be a 10 minute walk from the train station.  We'll see!