Bruges and back to Amsterdam

The drive to Bruges was pretty uneventful, but our rental car was driving us nuts! The car beeped anytime we went 2 km/hr over the posted speed limit (it knew!), if we switched lanes without signaling it would fight against us, and it would beep at us if it thought we needed to "focus on driving!" We searched all the menus and sought help online, but we did not have the right access to turn off that nonsense. Anyway, we arrived without tearing the car apart. Our B&B was in old Bruges, so we got to go through one of the original 14th century city gates, called Smedenpoort, just wide enough for a car. 

Then we managed to find street parking to drop off bags and make our way up to our room on the 4th floor (more tiny steep stairs!), in an attic space. The hostess left us directions on where to leave our car for free parking (at a park just outside the gate), which turned out to be fine and actually free! The room was cute, with two sleeping areas and a decent bathroom, with the door at the foot of the last set of stairs. There wasn't any A/C, but the windows pivoted in the center, as depicted in the first picture, and we opened them all and turned on the fans to air out the space and get a mild cross breeze. Hadley stuck her head out of the bathroom window, while I stood on our bed for the 3rd picture. 

All right, now to see about dinner. We tried a highly rated burger joint a few blocks away, but they didn't taste quite right, not that we had very high expectations. Oh well, time to explore Bruges a bit before bedtime. Turns out it was the last weekend of a pilgrimage, which apparently meant they had a carnival stuffed into the old town between us and the central square. Talk about a very strange juxtaposition with cheesy carny rides next to medieval homes and cobblestone streets. I was a bit disappointed, because that's not what we were expecting or wanting out of our Bruges experience. Luckily, we made it past the chaos and crowds to the Market Square for sunset. A large open area surrounded by shops, museums, restaurants, and the 13th-century belfort, this is the heart of Bruges. We stayed until the lights came on, and then headed back to our beds in the attic.

The next morning, we went down all the stairs to breakfast around 9. As a B&B, we were treated to a decent spread, but sadly, no Belgian waffles! I think our hostess was British, so we had hardboiled eggs in egg cups instead. The warm croissants were the best part! We ended up making sandwiches to go with the plates of cheese, meats, and bag of rolls, which came in handy during our day of exploring. We represented 'merica as we cleared the table of anything edible, like a swarm of locusts. Now back to Bruges. 

Our first stop was the Beguinage, a 13th-century abbey where the residents live in silence. It's still inhabited to this day, and signs reminded visitors to stay quiet while within the walls. Unfortunately, we witnessed several tour groups come through, so it wasn't quite as peaceful as it could have been. It seems word has gotten out about Bruges.

If we tried to ignore the tour groups, we could appreciate the scenery and imagine a quainter way of life. Bruges is filled with canals, and the ducks and swans had to compete with tour boats for water space. It was still duckling season, so we saw lots of little birds following their parents. On land, the horse-drawn carriages added to the charm, with very few cars on the roads in the inner city.

Aren't these two cute? I'm glad that they like to be around each other most of the time. 😊

After much walking, we mapped out a "free" toilet in the library, but since it was Sunday, it was closed. However, we did find a public, outdoor urinal and a free public, "self-cleaning" restroom for ladies down the street. I've got to say that we really missed the free bathrooms and complimentary iced tap water in the USA!! Also, Europeans still smoke, a LOT.

After a brief respite while we ate our "free" sandwiches, we went to a couple of cathedrals, including the Basilica of the Holy Blood where the pilgrimage was at its last day to see a vial said to contain Jesus' blood. No pictures were allowed of that, but here we are in the square about to see it (it's discreetly in the corner of these buildings). It was only about a 10-minute wait. For those keeping score, this is our 3rd relic of the trip! Also pictured: Church of Our Lady.

All of this walking made us hungry, and we still had to get Belgian waffles while in Belgium. Even better, dip them in Belgian dark chocolate and put them on a stick for mobility! Scrumptious! We enjoyed them in a park with a view of the Basilica in the background.

Then, we hit a few of Bruges' picturesque bridges and photo spots. Lots of other tourists, canal boats, and more swans!

Finally, we found the Halve Maan brewery, the original Bruges craft brewery, though fairly young for the city at just 170 years old. We enjoyed a sampling of the beers, while the kids ordered more Belgian waffles.

And we couldn't leave Belgium without taking some of its chocolate home! Luckily, we're all dark chocolate fans, so we got an assortment of truffles and bars with white chocolate, raspberries, nougat, Speculoos (we know them as "airplane cookies" or Biscoff), and hazelnut. Yum! I'm sure they're all marked up for tourist prices, but they were worth it!

The next morning after our B&B breakfast, we hit the road again to close the loop back to Amsterdam. We passed through a lot of rain around Antwerp, but it cleared up soon after. We made a stop at Kinderdijk, a world heritage site. Think classic 18th-century Dutch windmills, now add bikes. It doesn't get much more Dutch than that! We ate our leftover "sandwiches" from breakfast at a picnic table and rented bikes for a couple of hours, since we enjoyed our Alaskan biking so much. There is a whole network of trails over flat terrain, next to canals full of waterlilies and ducks, and the weather was perfect!

From there, it was a short drive back to Amsterdam, where our final two nights would be in a houseboat. We're going for all the stereotypes here. It was in a great location, not far from where we boarded our canal cruise a week prior, with two bedrooms, one of which was on the roof and had a good view of North Amsterdam. I wish I'd gotten a picture at night when it was all lit up!

Ah, Amsterdam... The wildplassen must be quite the problem.

After we dropped off bags and kids, we had to return the rental car, which was on the other side of downtown. We were able to navigate through rush hour traffic (mostly bikes, thick in every direction!), return the car in a parking garage (right next to our first hotel!), and use public transit to make the trip back to the houseboat. If I lived here, I'd definitely use a bike. It seemed like there must be as many bikes in this city as people! 

On our final day, we went to the library, mostly because we could see it across the water from the houseboat, and we have a habit of going to libraries on vacation (Alaska, Wisconsin, Connecticut, DC). Like all great libraries, the kids area made reading fun!

I liked that they displayed the teen graphic novels like records.

The library was 6 or 7 stories tall with central escalators all the way up and had a cafe on the top floor with an outdoor patio that looked back across the city. We could see our houseboat across the river. We ate lunch there, and best of all, the bathrooms were free!

After lunch, we had to cross the city through its narrow lanes (left) to make our Anne Frank ticket time. This museum is set up in the secret annex (and adjacent buildings) where 8 people, including Anne Frank, hid for 2 years during WWII. They didn't allow pictures inside, so this was the best I could do (right). It was a very moving experience, literally and figuratively. It was a bit like the Vatican where you just had to keep moving in a long continuous line...

Our last meal was Dutch pancakes, so we pretty much bookended our trip with pancakes. Not too shabby! The restaurant was the little round building to the left below, but they had a multi-tiered deck on the back with a view overlooking a canal. A fitting end to our time in Amsterdam! The next morning, we rolled our bags 10 minutes to the Centraal Station and hopped a train to the airport.