Bruges: Day 2

Soooo sorry for the long break.  Drew's whole fam was here all week and I didn't have much time to post anything - but now I'm here and ready to get caught up!  Back to Bruges!

Day 2.  Woke up, hit the bustling food market they have on Saturday mornings.  Lots of cool food items: fresh baked breads, exotic teas, rotisserie chickens turning on wall-to-wall spits, all kinds of fish, cheese, candy, and things I couldn't place.  Then we had brunch at a gorgeous little tea room, climbed the clock tower, all 366 tight, windy, dangerous steps of it; had a little canal boat tour, then spent the afternoon pub crawling and trying different beers.  Yum yum.  Here are some pics.

Lots o' Belgian teas.

Meat and fish and what not.

Candy!

Cheese!

Something I can't identify!

More meat.

Rotisserie chickens a'spinnin.  

Cool decorated flags flying in the streets.  An accordian!

A dress and pants flag!

Prestige, the lovely tea room where we ate a big sugary breakfast.

Pretty roses and floral paper and velvet benches.

Almost croissants, pains au chocoate, and rolls.  So good.

And a Belgian waffle with powdered sugar for the lady.

View from the Belfry Bell Tower, built in the 1200s.  

Humongous bells over our heads.

Drew being a kook.

These were the stairs we had to climb - yikes.

Just a sign near a brewery that I agreed with.

Canal boat tour!

A park where all the swans hang out.

Gorgeous old homes!

We're on a boat!

This is the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel, a super nice place where the movie In Bruges was filmed.  (Which was a huge deal to these Belgians, not necessarily because they liked the movie, but because it brought fame to their city and now you'll hear people say "And THIS is where Colin Farrell walked during the filming.  And THIS is where Colin liked to have drinks while filming."  Etc.  I still need to watch the movie I guess.)

De Halve Maan Brewery - one of the only ones in Bruges with a guided tour and a gorgeous view of the Bruges country side!

View from the roof, right after I slammed the top of my head onto a concrete partition in the ceiling.   I thought I was concussed.  What a klutz.  

After starting off at the brewery, we went to several other little bars/pubs for extensive beery tasting!  It was so fun and the beers were awesome!  I imagine afternoons like this are ones we'll look back on when we're older and life is hectic with kids or other things, and say "Remember when we were young and had nothing to do but drink Belgian beer and wander around?"  Gotta take full advantage of these moments.  I'd say we're doing a decent job thus far.

We had several friends recommend this cute "beerhouse", t'Brugs Beertje, and we were NOT disappointed!

The beer menu.  Literally a full encyclopedia of different beers.  Overwhelming.

Up next: Cafe Rose Red, another bar/cafe that specializes in Trappist beers.  Highly recommended.

They also offered beer flights!  Cool!

We randomly ate dinner at a place down the street from our hotel, De Vlaamsche Pot, a quaint little place that offers really rich Belgian dishes.  REALLY delicious.

The next morning, we ate waffles in front of the Belfry Bell Tower, stopped at a chocolate shop, and headed back to the train station to get to Brussels for the night.  More on that to come.

Chocolate figures at the chocolate shop.  Kinda weird but cute I guess.

Alright, more on Brussels to come - almost done!  Goodnight!