In Bruges

This morning we woke up ready to go, well maybe ready to go to breakfast. Our breakfast was actually inside the main part of the hotel so we made a short 1 minute walk to get there. Loads of your favorite Europe continental breakfasts with cereal, cold cut meats, cheeses, crusty rolls, and for mom and dad....MORE coffee!!!

Today's adventure lead us to the southeast corner of Market Square to an area called the Burg Square. The building behind my dad and Kevin is the Church of Holy Blood and it is said that it contains a vial of what is believed to be Christ's blood which was stolen during the Crusades. It is a very quaint church but the statues inside are very graphic when it comes to Christ's crucification and death. I was having a tough time explaining it all to Addison but then she pointed to one of the statues and said "Jesus is hurt mommy" and that is what helped me a bit to explain that Jesus got very hurt and died because he loved us so much. Then she went on to ask me about baby Jesus and if he could make God and Jesus happy. She is so cute. We used the church as a sanctuary later in the day when we got caught in a massive down pour.

One of the most beautiful buildings in the Burg Square is the old gothic town hall. It is amazing to see all the statues and stone work and also to see Kevin be a goof ball in front of it.

Blind Donkey Alley is talked about in all the travel books and you would end up missing this amazing view if you didn't look back after walking through from the Burg.

This morning there was a very small fish and craft market going on. My mom and dad just love the markets that are over here and just get a kick out of them because we just don't have something like that on a regular basis in the Heartland (Iowa).

It was a bit too cold to go on a boat ride and with rain being inevitable we decided to walk the rest of the sites in town, but that didn't stop the kiddos from waiving at all the people floating by.

Addison just loved having her Grandma Sue to hold hands with and drag all over the place.

Talking a walk along the canal and daring little Harrison walking on the canal wall. We were off to the other market along the canal just a couple of blocks south of the Market Square. As we left the market we got dumped on by rain...luckily today I remembered to bring our three rain ponchos and a couple of umbrellas. Our rainy hour activities consisted of me popping into a shop to by a Belgium cookie mould. You make something similar to a graham cracker shortbread cookie in them by mixing up the dough and then pressing it into the wooden mould and then rolling a rolling pin over the top, pop them out and cook. She threw in the recipe for me for buying the 4-in-1 mould.

After the rain slowed down a bit mom and I decided to venture up the Belfry Tower. Kevin and I didn't get to do this the last time we came and I said someone needs to go up there. So while mom and I waited 45 minutes in line, the guys brought the kids along with them to get some coffees. The tower costs 8 Euro a person so that you can climb 330 steps up a super steep and narrow staircase. They can only allow 70 people at one time in the tower so we waited a long time for our turn. The climb was rough at times and just darn humorous to me because I kept thinking of that scene in "In Bruge" with Colin Ferrel where the guy tells the really fat American family that they were crazy to make their way up the tower. He was totally right...no offense again overweight people and I'm not Miss Skinny either but it's a tight squeeze for me to comfortably walk up these tiny stairs.

The view of the city from above was pretty amazing. I felt like Charlie on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as they soared over the city in the Wonka-vator to see all the red roofs and old buildings.

The best observation point is from the top windows but they are covered with wire fencing and have a shade covering 3/4 of it and a wall that is pretty high so you can't see the Market Square below very well, but it was still pretty. It was pretty windy and apparently cold because my mom said she couldn't feel her pinky toes as we walked down the stairs. It's probably a venture that I wouldn't need to do again, but the laughs I got from walking up and down the stairs and spending the 1 1/2 hours alone with my mom was great!

The boys took the kids to a cafe where they drank coffees and let the kids mow down on Belgium waffles and so some coloring.

Other extra curricular activities included shopping for some unique gifts to bring home to Dad's neighbors. Men sure do have a funny sense of humor between each other.

We found each other by accident since neither Kevin or I carried along our mobile phones with us...ha ha!! I was really craving Italian so we found another little pizzeria in the Market Square for a late lunch. Addison made herself comfortable while she drew up another masterpiece.

Ahh...can you feel the love after eating Italian food. Dad and Kevin ordered pizzas, but I hankered down with a big plate of spaghetti bolognese. It's really funny but I would never order spaghetti from a restaurant in the States but I do it all Italian places in Europe.

What a cute pair!!! Addies got that Derek Zoolander lips down pat.

I am learning that when you want total strangers to take pictures for you on holiday that you almost have to stand in the exact spot you want them to stand and take the picture and show it to them so they get it somewhat close. Well I tried this method with an Aussie gal we saw in the square, but it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it but here is our whole crew in the Market Square in front of the Belfry Tower.

We went back down to the shops to buy up a few souvenirs and Addison got a special ride from Grandpa Jeff.

This was the only person we saw making lace while in Bruges and she only had 4 spindles going when I've seen them with almost 50+ going. She is actually using a completed peice below this new one with some parchment paper between them...it will take her 1 week to complete this one piece which sells in their shop for about 100 Euro. To me that doesn't figure to very much per hour for such a delicate craft to master.

With it being Easter weekend, the Easter bunny and some other friendly characters were out and about bringing the children chocolate eggs. I think my kids met up with 3 different people and got a load of chocolate.

It was time for us to leave Bruges around 3 so that we could make our way to Leiden, Netherlands for our next leg of the trip. On our way out of town we saw the 4 windmills that we had heard about being near the edge of town. What an amazing city and I'm so glad we got to visit it again!!!