The first day was a lot of wandering and picture-taking. The only downfall to the weekend was how cold it was (as countries in Northern Europe tend be), but I think we braved it pretty well. I got a great shot of John in front of the only rays of sunshine that we got all day. For dinner, we attempted to go to a restaurant called The Hobbit (or, the equivalent in Dutch), but since we had no reservations, we were redirected to their sister restaurant across the road, called Tolkien. I don't know what the deal was with the Lord of the Rings obsession, but the food was great so I didn't bother to think about it much.
The next day, Valentines Day, was probably one of my favorite experiences in Europe thus far. For one, the weather was fabulous, and I got to enjoy the most constant sunlight I've seen in about a month and a half. We wandered into an old fashioned toy shop, and amused ourselves with beautifully carved wooden swords and shields and a wide array of puppets. Then we visited the candy shop across the street, where they roll out the candy on a hot table right in front of you. After that, a short stroll down the street (or straat, as we got in the habit of saying), we found a church that contained Michelangelo's Madonna and Child, one of the only Michelangelo pieces that you can find outside of Italy.
Soon after the church, John and I came across a canal that had a line of people sitting next it. We thought, 'is that a line for a restaurant? At 11 a.m.?' We soon realized that it was the line for boat tours (or, bootexcursies), and we took no time to join the line ourselves. The boat tour was awesome, and it gave us such a cool perspective of the city. It makes me wonder why all cities don't have canals...Manhattan could certainly use a few, they would spruce it right up.
After the boat tour, we decided to get some frites (fries) in the Mark't (main square). Right in front of the main cathedral there are two dinky little frite stands, that both claim to be the best in Bruges. We decided to do as the locals do, and each got our own frites from each stand. I still say that my stand's fries were way better (something to do with the seasoning), but John claims his were the best. Either way, they were delicious, and I've decided that mayonnaise on fries is basically the best combo in the world.
For dinner, John and I got dinner in a restaurant called Sacre Cour (Sacred Heart), ad got the Valentines Day treatment. For appetizer, there was carpaccio of tuna, which we later googled and found that it is raw tuna, thinly sliced. Believe me when I say that it was scrumptious. For the main course we had quail in a sweet grape sauce (sooo goood!), and for desert there was the Love Apple, which was a baked whole apple with raspberry sauce dribbled on top. All in all, one of the best meals I've had in a longgg long time.
The rest of the weekend was more sightseeing, more shivering, and more warming up in pubs. We actually got a drink in a pub called The Druids Cellar, which was apparently the regular pub for the cast and crew of In Bruges. It was honestly just your standard Irish bar, but it was cool to think that I could have been sitting at Colin Farrel's favorite table.
I'm in Brussels until Thursday, and then I'm off for Scotland on Friday! I'll be sure to post again about that whole adventure.
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