Belgium

As previously promised here is the Belgium part of our trip. I guess it could really be called the Bruges (Brugge in Flemish which is what they speak there) part of the trip as that is the only city that we went to in Belgium. Like I said previously, we left Luxembourg on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Bruges. It took us a few hours but James actually slept for almost 2 hours in the car so it was not a bad ride at all. When we got to Bruges I immediately fell in love with the city. It is amazing! Can you tell how I feel by the huge smile on my face? This was the first picture that we took in Bruges.Bruges was a very influential city from the 14th to the 16th centuries which is where it gets its amazing architecture. It had a major shipping port and cloth market and boasted a population of 35,000 (as big as London during the same time period). Today it is prospers because of people like me who want to see its beauty and taste its chocolate! We started off our afternoon with a small tour of the city by car. What I mean by that is that the streets are so small and confusing that we drove past our hotel 3 times before Brian decided it was okay to find a parking spot. On the other hand, I was loving all the little streets we got to see and let me tell you that the architecture is amazing! We got all checked into the hotel and decided to spend the evening strolling about the city. Our hotel was about 2 tiny blocks from the main "Market Square" so it was ideally located. Here are Brian and James in Market Square with a view of the famous clock tower behind them. It dates from 1300 but was added onto during the 1400s. Very cool! You can walk to the top but we opted out of this with James.Another view of Market Square and my two favorite traveling partners. We attempted to go out to dinner at a real restaurant that night but I ended up taking James back to the hotel early to get him ready for bed. That was the last time we attempted to eat out with him on the trip. From then on it was take out or grocery store food or street vendor stuff. That was our first evening in Bruges.
The next day I was in a hurry to get all my must see sights in so that I wouldn't miss a thing. We headed out right after a great breakfast at the hotel. First stop: Groeninge Museum, which houses the best of Flemish art. Brian and I enjoyed it but James did not so Brian ended up taking him out and I finished up a bit more leisurely but still hurried. From there we headed straight to the Church of Our Lady. The reason that I wanted to see this chruch has nothing to do with Bruges. It just so happens to house a Michaelangelo. It is called Madonna and Child and is said to be the only one of his statues to leave Italy during his lifetime. (Remember that Bruges was super rich and powerful back in the day). I was very impressed by it but not as much as by the Pieta.After checking out the church we decide to take a boat tour on the canal to get a different view of the city. We got loaded onto the boat and I asked Brian for the camera and he told me that I had it. Well, I didn't have it. We assumed we left it in the stroller and that we would just have to make due with the Flip video for the boat ride. The ride was perfect. Only 30 minutes and we got to see different parts of Bruges that we would not have seen otherwise. James thought it was pretty cool to be in "wa wa" as he calls water but by the end of the boat ride we knew it was nap time.
After the boat ride we went to the stoller and we looked for the camera but it was nowhere to be found. Oops. I was rightfully blamed for losing the camera. It really was my fault. I was supposed to gather everything from the stroller for the boat ride while Brian wrangled with James. It really was sad that we lost the camera and all those pictures that we took.
After James nap, yes, we took daily naps on this trip too, we went back out and checked out some more of the city and then we went to a camera shop and bought a brand new camera. We couldn't very well not have a camera. I tried to see if they had a disposable digital camera available but they didn't. We got chinese take out for dinner and ate it at the hotel and made sure our new camera was charged and ready for the next morning.
The next morning we set out to take pictures of all the places we had already been in Bruges so that we had some documentation. Here I am in Market Square. You can get a good idea of what that city architecture looks like in this picture. There are literally tons of tiny streets lined with amazing houses just like this. Here is a view of the clock tower in the morning. Isn't it cool looking? This is the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Burg Square which we liked even better than Market Square as it was much quieter and there was room for James to roam and explore. It is called the Basilica of the Holy Blood because it houses a relic of the blood of Jesus Christ which was brought there in 1150 A.D. I'm not buying it. I think Jesus got all his blood back when he was resurected. Either way, it is another example of the cool architecture of the city. It really is quite well preserved. Here's a picture of Brian and James with the clock tower in the background. Isn't that a beautiful location? Just a random picture of the canal with the beautiful, old houses being reflected. Here are James and Brian in front of the chocoate shop where James had his first chocolate (white so he wouldn't get dirty). Can you tell we were frantically trying to take these photos? Well, we were trying to document everything we had seen the day before so that we could post. Here James is totally ready for his nap. He can barely lift his head off Brian's shoulder. I'm pushing the stroller as James refused to sit in it anymore. Little rebel! On the way into the hotel, I stuffed the new camera bag into the stroller so that I could maneuver it better. We got up to the hotel room and that stupid camera bag was missing! No, I am not kidding. So I go running back down looking everywhere for it. I couldn't find it anywhere and Brian was getting a bit irritated with me losing expensive items out of the stroller so he went back and retraced my steps but to no avail. Sad hu? I really swear that I put it in the stroller right as I was entering the hotel. So what did we do? We ripped the stroller apart looking for it. And guess what we found? Our "lost" camera!! And the new camera bag. Yes, the old camera wasn't lost after all. It was safely stowed in a secret place in our stroller that we didn't even know existed. Oh well. Now we have two cameras. One for each of us to take pictures with. Brian utterly refused to let me take the new camera back as we had already taken a few pics with it. And 5 minutes after finding all our missing items. This is what I found. Aren't they precious? After our nap we checked out of the hotel and then went to explore Bruges a bit more. We took more pictures. Can you tell the weather was amazing? Brian's attempt at getting James to look at the camera. Next time he says he will be sure to dangle the "bapes" as James calls them behind the camera. It didn't even work as James already had a "bape" in his hand. Then we headed back to Burg Square with some rotisserie chicken and fries from a take away place. The specialties in Bruges are waffles (i.e. Belgium waffles), mussles and fries. We had waffles and fries but no mussles. In Belgium (and all the other places I've been in Europe) waffles are NOT breakfast food. They are dessert or a sack in the afternoon with some tea. Who would have known? Of course, I've seen "American burgers" here with a big fat fried egg on top. Who the heck in America ever puts a fried egg on top of a hamburger except a European? Anyway, that is totally off subject. After lunch we decided to let James enjoy the beautiful weather and to waste some energy before packing him up in the car. Here he is intently analyzing a fistfull of rocks. And here he is gingerly placing them in the piece of public "art" in Burg Square. Here he is checking out his own reflection. He likes to smile at himself. Maybe it is because I have told him that he has the most beautiful smile in the whole world. Here Brian is playing a "no" game with him. We play these lots. Basically it goes like this, James does something that is silly or naughty and then one of us says "no, no, no" in a totally playful way and he starts to laugh. Very simple game but Bimmy totally loves it. This time he was sticking his dirty fingers in his mouth and Brian was attempting to keep them out so we could wipe them off. Bimmy was having lots of fun trying to thwart our efforts. On the way out of town we decided to try some gelato cones. James was so excited when we handed him his very own passion fruit gelato until he got to the cone. The cone was getting in the way of him getting to the gelato and that made him mad. I had to teach him how to scoop the gelato out with his little spoon. See how intently he is focused on the cone? He was such a mess and people were totally staring but it is vacation and kids are supposed to have fun treats and get super dirty on vacation right? After this we went to the car to leave for Amsterdam and just as we got James all cleaned up from his cone (well as clean as possible with wipes), he pooped out of his diaper. Luckily is wan't too bad of a blowout and it wasn't in the car so that was a bonus. We got him cleaned up again and headed out to Amsterdam. It was only a 2 hour ride but James wasn't about to sleep for it. Luckily he was relatively happy on the drive. Overall, I loved Bruges. It is a beautiful and relaxing little city that is totally worth checking out. Stay tuned for the Holland post coming soon...I hope!