Day 34 – Bruges
Sightseeing Bruge
Bruges put on a chilly morning for us as we hunted around for a cup of coffee. Soon after we’d finished breakfast the snow started falling thick and fast compared to what we experienced in Paris and it was a real novelty for us. Kylie was mesmerised by the shapes they made, she could have stood there for hours studying the damn things.
It was definitely a lot colder here in Bruges compared to Paris, the river was fully frozen over.
This made Kylie especially happy as she managed to “skip her first stone” by throwing it across ice. Sports-star she ain’t 
A little bit of a wander later we found, according to Kylie, “Our Lady of the Headless Baby Jesus”. I’m sure I’m going to hell just by standing within 6 feet of her uttering these blasphemous gems.
The wandering made us hungry so we decided it was lunchtime. One of the common dishes of the area are mussels so we went to a mussel cave to have a plate. Oh, and some beer.
These are two very local brews, the brewery is in Bruge itself although is only open to the public on the weekends so we couldn’t tour it 
The mussels were delicious. Kylie ordered them and had the lion’s share, I only had a couple. Very sweet and tender, with a more subtle mussel flavour than what I’m used to from Australian mussels, they were probably the best we’ve ever had. I ordered eel in a very strong cream sauce, powerful stuff.
We then wandered a little more and found ourselves at the base of the belfry that I’d photographed the night before. We decided to climb it, a decision I almost regretted later…who the hell climbs a 366-step belfry with a belly full of beer and eels in cream sauce? Me of course. It almost resulted in Bruges suffering from another snowstorm of sorts…
Partway up we saw the tower’s carillon, a giant music box.
Then at the top, the view. Quite nice and very much worth it.
The tower in the middle of the picture is The Church of Our Lady, the second-highest brick tower in the world. Unforunately whilst we were there it was under renovation so we didn’t go and have a closer look.
After that it was time for the climb down, and I failed to mention for the most part the climb up is quite narrow. Cosy when an attractive female is travelling in the opposite direction, uncomfortable when a fat American is…
We made our way back to the house for a bit of a rest in preparation for the evening’s meal. We were hoping it was going to be a special one as it was our first try at a restaurant that had beer-matching for courses. More beer!
We arrived at Den Dyver full of anticipation, although Kylie had been feeling a little unwell so she was unsure if she was going to be able to undertake one of our gustatory adventures. By the time the entrees had arrived she was feeling quite unwell. By the time the mains arrived she was “acutely unwell” in the restaurant’s bathroom and we had to cut the meal short.
Those @##$$# mussels were dodgy.
