Three Days, Two Countries, 20,000 Calories: Day the Third

Bruges

Another early morning, another train to catch. We are less hurried and leisurely stroll through the streets of Brussels, through a winter-stunted garden, past a mob of shrieking, soccer-ball kicking children, (or I suppose it’s football), and return to Centraaal Station once again.

More countryside. Houses, horses, mud.

We arrive in Bruges — pronounced in Dutch BROO-gah — and follow a throng of tourists into town.

Magical. Wonderful. Walt Disney could not have conjured a more picturesque village. Here we stand, at the technological height of civilization, and some how, miraculously, Bruges has remained virtually untouched by ‘development.’ No towering glass skyscrapers. No throwback ’60s architecture. Instead, we find a reminder of what life was (albeit updated with, you know, electricity and plumbing and such).

I want to frolic down the cobblestone paths.

We dine on waterzooi and stumpf. (Yes, these are real foods and delicious.)

We drink rich, hearty hot chocolate.

We marvel at Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child, and how man was able to bring softness and life to cold, hard stone.

We avoid long lines at the famous bell tower. I stand in the square below and take photos, expecting the cast of “Beauty and the Beast” to romp in and begin a musical number at any minute.

We wander through surrounding neighborhoods in awe that People Actually Live Here.

The sun tucks itself behind the clouds again soon after we arrive, and as the day progresses the city throbs with tourists. We take our leave, hop on the train for a final return trip to Brussels. One last night.

And in the morning, one more chocolate croissant.

OK, fine. Maybe I ate two….