Monday, December 30th: Ghent and Bruges, Belgium

Sometimes taking the train across countries is confusing!  We got on our original train, knowing that we were getting off at "Ghent", and then as soon as we entered Belgium, the stop name changed to "Gand St.P".  I think all locations should just have one name, and that it shouldn't change with the change of languages.  At least Uwe explained the Köln/Cologne thing (Colonia was it's original name during Roman times, and those two are just variants).

Anyway...

We originally didn't plan on spending any time in Ghent, it was just going to be a more cost-effective stop on the way to Bruges. However, the hotel receptionist seemed so disappointed when we said that we were just "passing through" that we decided maybe we should check out Ghent at least for a bit in the morning before heading to Bruges.

We're happy we did!  It may not be quite AS picturesque as Bruges, but it also had hardly any tourists (especially compared with Bruges) which was lovely.

And on to Bruges!

We seem to prioritize a lot of our traveling according to foods that we want to eat.  Most countries that we've visited so far have had a list of "must eats". Because this was pretty much our only day in Belgium, we made it our mission to find: fries and mayonnaise (Flemish fries are supposed to be the best anywhere!), waffles, chocolate, and beer.  We wandered around Bruges for a good part of the afternoon: seeing pretty sights, taking pictures, and trying to check the foods off our list (It's a hard life!).

We had fries as a late lunch (to get out of the cold), picked up a box of chocolates at a fancy Belgian chocolate shop, ate waffles for dinner, and then spent the rest of our evening in a pub called Bierbrasserie Cambrinus.

Fruit topping for me, Nutella for Garrett

This pic was taken from their website.  It was a LOT more packed when we were there.

Garrett tried a flight from their selection of over 400 varieties.

Garrett convinced me to try a beer called "La Corne" that came in a curved, horn shaped glass with a fancy holder to keep it upright.  It proved a bit difficult (and silly looking) to drink out of, but the beer was pretty good.