Belgium - Brugge and Gent

After two full on weeks and three big cities (London, Barcelona, Paris) it was a relief to return move on to some quieter, more relaxed areas. Both Andy and I were looking forward to Belgium - Andy for the beer and me for the chocolate - and it certainly lived up to our expectations. Andy described our time in Belgium as beer, beer, beer, chocolate, chocolate, beer, chocolate, chocolate, beer and waffles, and I think he was fairly accurate although we managed to fit a fair but of walking and cycling in as well so hopefully we worked off some of the beer and chocolate.

Brugge. We stayed here for four nights in a pretty dodgy hostel but it was the only place in the town that matched our budget. We were very lucky to be sharing a dorm with nice people.

Brugge again. Lots of canals and more bikes than cars which was really nice.

Beer.

Waffle with chocolate and cream.

Strawberries from the market - the best, juiciest, sweetest strawberries I have ever eaten.

...and the best hot chocolate ever! You are given a cup of really hot steamed milk, a little  pot of melted dark chocolate that you mix into the milk, some cream to go on top and a selection of home made chocolates to sample (just in case you hadn't had enough chocolate already).

We hired bikes for a day and rode to a small town about 5km from Brugge called Damme and then went on to the beach - about a 40km round trip.

A windmill.

The bike path. It was really beautiful riding along the canals on tiny back streets with almost no cars and no hills.

Scenery on the ride.

The beach. It was very cold and windy! The beach itself was nice but there were lots of ugly high-rise buildings very close to the shore that I didn't like.

Another day we took the train to Gent to check out a bigger town. 

Gent reminded me of melbourne a bit, it was probably the tram lines everywhere.

A River in Gent

Gent.

On the footpath - I guess this is how they keep the streets clean!