After a well-deserved, long night of deep sleep, Mindy and I got ready to spend the day in Brugge, Belgium, which is a small, old city in northern Belgium.
We stopped at the grocery store to get some food and water, walked to the Etterbeek train station and bought two train tickets to Brugge.
The train ride to our connection was interesting because we had no clue where we were half the time. In fact, we didn't even realize when we finally reached the Midi station (Zuidstation), which was where we had to switch trains. So, we just sat on the train for about 10 minutes until we finally realized that the train wasn't going anywhere and that were at the Midi station.
We rode the train to Brugge. The Belgian countryside is fairly scenic, but not very exciting.
When we arrived in Brugge, we walked from the train station into town. Cobblestone streets and old buildings abound.
We found the Markt after wandering around for a little while. The Markt was very nice. It wasn't too crowded, but it was definitely bustling. Mindy and I had seen the film "In Bruges" a few months before, and a lot of it was filmed in the Markt.
After eating Doritos for lunch, we found the Burg area, walked into an old church, and then we found the canals.
After buying a waffle and some chocolate from a small sweet shop, we boarded a boat to take a 30-minute canal tour of Brugge. The boat tour was pretty cool.
After the boat tour, we headed back to the Markt to go up the Belfort, but it had already closed. I was a little disappointed because, of all the things I wanted to do on this trip, I think going up the Belfort was one of the things I looked forward to most.
After getting denied at the Belfort, we just walked around a little more, and then rode the train back to Brussels' Central Station. We couldn't figure out how to get back to the Etterbeek station via train or tram, so we walked to a bus stop and rode the number 95 bus back to Etterbeek.
We found that the locals in Brugge speak English much more readily than the locals in Brussels. It was probably because Brugge is more of a tourist destination than Brussels, which also has lots of tourists, but it has way more going on than just tourism.
At night, Mindy made me a nice macaroni and sauce dinner, and then we went to sleep.