Showing posts with label Belgium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Belgium. Show all posts

Monday, January 10, 2011

Brugge Conclusion

My giveaway ends tomorrow! 
Enter here. 

After the ice festival, we headed to the middle of town
to check out the two Christmas markets, 
have lunch and sightsee. 
It was a short walk, but it was so cold there! 




Restaurants like this lined the main street downtown. Most 
are hotel restaurants and the best places to eat.
We ate at three different ones and loved
them all. They were cozy and fully
decorated for the season. 
Plus, the food was delicious and the staff spoke English!



Since it was Belgium, chocolate stores were everywhere!
This was one of our favorites. They had some very interesting things, like:

Chocolate globes and ornaments

Chocolate Lipstick

And the weirdest thing of all:
Chocolate shooters. 
And by shooter, I mean sniffer. 
And by sniffer, I mean snorter. 
That's right folks, you actually snort the cocoa.
They provide you with very detailed instructions and 
pictures, so you know you'll get it right. 
(Um, what? Crazy right?) 

At one of the Christmas markets
The famous building seen in the movie "In Bruges".
It was a really good movie, by the way.

The center of town and another Christmas market.
I loved the way the buildings here looked. 
Mmm, sweet biscuits and chocolate covered almonds. 
The red building in the middle is where we stopped for hot chocolate and to warm up.
Hot chocolate here isnt just a drink.
It's an experience. 
It was exquisite. Definitely the best that
I've ever had. It even tops Angelina's, 
the famous hot chocolate of Paris. 
Brugge's hot chocolate was more milk chocolatey tasting 
and not as rich or dense. 
The real cream was a perfect topper. 

Trying to thaw out and very, very happy!
J LOVES churros! Every time we go back to his hometown by the beach in California,
we have to have a churro. We couldnt believe they were making and selling them here.

Wall O' Beer
Belgium is not only know for their chocolate, but for their beer as well.
These beer shops were everywhere and had more beer than you can imagine.
We were in Heaven in this store because they had beer AND chocolate!



One of the many canals
Gorgeous Winter scene
It started snowing HARD that night
 This trip was Reese's first time in a restaurant. She did
remarkably well. She either sat in my lap or the chair beside me
the entire time and didnt bother me while I was eating.
It didnt hurt that Id brought along some treats for her. 
This was my MAGNIFICENT meal! Lamb chops, salad and croquettes.
Croquettes are fried mashed potato sticks. YUM!
The restaurant we had dinner at that night
This is what the parking lot and our car looked like when we were ready to
leave the next day. It had snowed several inches since our arrival.
Reese is sporting one of her winter coats!

We loved Brugge and cant wait to go back. 
In warm weather next time. =) 

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Off to Brugge we went....

*Warning...this post is very picture heavy!*

The week after Thanksgiving,
J & I decided to take a trip to Brugge, Belgium.
We had heard wonderful things about the city- how romantic it is, 
how much there is to do, how beautiful it is, etc. 

We knew there was an international ice festival going on,
so we hopped in the car and away we went.
Our hotel was right next to the train station,
which is where the ice festival was taking place.
It was convenient, inexpensive and clean.
In other words, it perfectly fit our needs
and for 49 euro a night, 
we couldnt complain! 

I have so many photos from our trip, but
I didnt want to overload you so Ive
broken it up into two posts. 

The ice festival took place in 3 very large tents set up 
in front of the Brugge central train station. 
It was 21º inside but it felt so much colder! 
We spent about 45 minutes examining the 
impressive ice sculptures before moving on to the
warm up tent. By that time, 
our toes were so numb that we couldnt feel them
and our noses looked like Rudolph, 
but we really enjoyed the festival!


The theme of the ice festival this year was "Around the World". 
It featured sculptures of landmarks and icons from 
multiple places around the world. 



The Colosseum with the Leaning Tower of Pisa behind it
Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man
Michelangelo's David

We brought our dog with us.
This is the first time we've traveled with her in
Europe and it went surprisingly well.
She was so well behaved,
even in restaurants.
It was freezing there and snowed on us a lot,
so of course we brought her
winter coat!
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Big Ben
Berlin Wall
Russia
Super cool car!
Mariachi Band
Statue of Liberty
Flamenco Dancers
Native American
Mt. Rushmore
Cowboy
Iwo Jima
Ellvis, Michael Jackson & Madonna =) 
Marilyn Monroe
Cathedral in New York City
MJ up close
Igloo!
Hindu deity

Sphynx
Indian elephant
Motorcycle

To be continued....

Happy Thursday!