Brugge die Scone. (Bruges the beautiful) At 10 AM our city guide was expecting us at the periphery of the tourist center of Brugge. Thus, we had to be on the bus at 9 AM in Gent, breakfast taken and ready to enjoy new adventures. Indeed, the city guide was waiting for us, although we hadn’t seen her at first.

She took us for a two and a half hour walk through the old city, while entertaining us with plenty of history, and social stories. While the group was admiring the Madonna statue of Michelangelo in the Cathedral, Johnny managed to order coffee for some and beer for most at the pub nearby. It was a nice and refreshing surprise half way in the tour. Claudine had found Belgian chocolate truffles to share.

One of the 4,000 (?) madonna's of Brugge

Five minutes later we were again adoring the beauty of this old medieval city that missed the industrial revolution. Visiting ‘gods huizen’ (700 year old social housing), rich houses of patricians today converted into museums, the beautiful canals (Venice of the North), the cute bridges over the canals, the towers of the Belfry and the churches, the small public trading places, the Beguin Court and so much more. Bruges is a fairy tale. (Isn’t it Gail?) Many of us fell in love with this beautiful city.

Court yard of the Beguinage.

For lunch, a typical plate of Belgian fries with mayonnaise or another spicy sauce was suggested. In the mean time, Emiel, our busdriver had brought our luggage to the hotel. We could check in at 2 PM. Since the hotel was right in the middle of town, we walked together to the hotel, after drinking a couple of beers around the central market square. Some of us were brave enough to climb the 365 staires of the Belfry tower, and were rewarded with a great view of the city and the surrounding country side.

Belfry Tower peaks out above patricians houses.

Belgian fries are the best!

The rest of the afternoon was free spending time. Some of us caught up on sleep for a while, but most went immediately outside again to ride a boat on the canals, to explore more little streets and mediaeval beauty, or to discover the richness of the local ‘bottle shop’ with its many glassware and unknown Belgian beers. Some of us found the marketsquare where hundreds of high school students were celebrating in the middle of the afternoon the end of the schoolweek with a couple of good Belgian beers, a little bit of dancing and a lot of flirting and gossiping. (Isn’t it Surfer-Bill?)

At 6:30 PM we all arrived at the famous beer restaurant Den Dyver for a rich long Belgian beer dinner. The chef wasn’t ready yet, and we got an extra glass of beer to get us started. You can easily imagine that during the three and a half hours eating and drinking the noise level of our group was in high gear, and everybody had a fabulous time. Something extraordinary was to be seen and experienced in the restrooms down-stairs. It inspired Dean to start a new company in the USA. Andre Van de Velde with his wife Bea had the good idea to join us for this dinner.

Explaning what he saw in the restroom

Plenty of empty glasses and they are still not fighting.

After dinner Andre took us to the ‘Garre van Cornee’, one of the smallest and most authentic pubs in Brugge for a "Garre", which is a 10.5 % Belgian triple. Unfortunately, the pub was very crowded and we couldn’t all get in. Some of us choose to go to bed, others went straight to ‘t Brugs Beertje, the pub in Brugge with probably the largest selection of Belgian beers, a few of us enjoyed first the ‘Garre’ before going to the Brugs Beertje and eventually to our hotel.

The "Garre van Cornee"

Day IV