Michelle and I had been thinking about going to Belgium for quite a while since it was so close, and everybody we�d mentioned the idea to had told us to go to Bruge. Bruge is quite a small town in northern Belgium close to the North Sea, and as we found out, one of the most picturesque towns one could hope to spend a sunny day in. We went straight to the train station Sunday morning, and half the people in line at the ticket counter seemed to be buying their fares to the same place. Once we got on the train, I think we upped our estimate to over fifty percent. There wasn�t a single seat left, and it was still quite early. We spent an hour on the train, and pushed out of the station away from the hordes and into the town. My first impression, was that we were in the wrong place. The station is just on the edge of the city, and the most direct route is up a very calm and nearly empty residential street. Everything is built from red brick, the fences, the houses and shops, the church. It�s not all a uniform shade, but it does give the city a very warm look around the edges. It is also incredibly clean and seems very well looked after. Unlike other European cities I�d visited, the older buildings aren�t stained black with coal smoke, perhaps because Bruge was never a real industrial centre, but also it seems that they really take good care of the buildings. We spent our time there wandering through the old streets, shopping for chocolate, taking a boat cruise along Bruges extensive but not overwhelming canal network. I stopped in a bakery for an �clair, Michelle bought Belgian lace souvenirs for her family and Chris bought chocolate to take back home. Nothing in particular stood out from the day, but I think everybody agreed it was one of the most enjoyable we�d spent in a long time. We must have had a good time because even sitting on the floor in the area between train cars on the way back to Brussels didn�t phase us. There were definitely a lot of other people out for the day. Luckily, the train we boarded shortly after to return to Cologne wasn�t quite so crowded.
