In Bruges. And happy skunk day!

Meine Lieben,

Happy National Skunk Day!!! Yay! How do you celebrate it? It is pretty funny that there is a skunk day. I have never heard about that before but I think that there should be a day for every animal! But hey, people should celebrate EVERY animal EVERY day. Animals make me happy and that's a good reason for a celebration. 

                                                                                  source.


Last fall David hopped on a plane to come and visit Europe! We stayed a couple of days in Cadzand Bad at the North Sea and during that stay we visited Bruges (or Brugge) in Belgium. I have been to Bruges a couple of times and I am in love with the town. I love the atmosphere there. There are many tourists in Bruges but it's still very relaxed and quiet. 

Bruges is the capital of the province West Flanders. It's also the province's largest city with a population of 117000 people (I guess that's pretty small for American standards) and 13,840 hectars. It is located in the north west of Belgium and the historic city center is a prominent World heritage site of the UNESCO. It is sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the North" because of all the canals. And at least for me, the city has the same mystique feeling than Venice. (Did you know that there is something called "The Venice syndrome"? Many people chose Venice as a place to commit suicide because of it's melancholy. It's true.).

In case you haven't seen the movie "In Bruges" starring Colin Farrell yet: watch it! You see a lot of Bruges plus the movie is really good.

So, I want to share some of our pictures with you, I hope you like them.

Windmill! I swear, we stopped at every windmill we saw and we got so excited every single time. And there are lots of windmills in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Rozenhoedkaai. This city is so beautiful and it has many many beautiful churches that are definitely worth a visit. 

We had to do some touristy things and so we ended up in a boat on a canal ride. It was very funny and we saw a lot of great architecture including all the scary looking bridges. I was a little scared that the boat would not fit under it and that we had to drown. I am scared of deep water, you know. 

We were really lucky with the weather. It was a perfect day in Bruges! I am glad David liked it too. It was really hard for me to decide what I want to show him. I mean, it was his first time in Europe and there are so many places I want to show him...and we only had 11 days. 

I love this picture. In my opinion it perfectly catches the atmosphere of the city. I mean, all the medieval architecture....it's fantastic.

I have to say it wasn't easy to find a place to park. All the streets are very small and I think we searched for over half an hour. My Dad later said that he thinks it's totally easy to find a parking spot in Bruges but okay. So maybe it was just me. 

And this is the most famous inhabitant of Bruges. Fidel the dog. He is a golden labrador and he lives at the Côté Canal bed and breakfast overlooking the main canal. But he’s better known as “that dog who’s in every person who goes to Bruges’ photo album”. He even made an appearance in the movie! So cool.

Please watch the trailer, you won't regret it. Plus you see the dog at 1:47.

David and me in front of the Provinciaal Hof. It is located at the market. I think the post office is in there but I am not sure. 

You can see it better here. You can't miss it when you are in Bruges. You see it from far away, it is in the city center and there are many shops and restaurants around it. 

David at one of the many canals. I just realizes that I love all cities with canals. Venice, Amsterdam, Bruges. I am not sure what that says about me. 

As I said, the bridges were all so tiny and our boat captain told us to duck so that we don't get hurt. I guess I was the only person who actually did it. 

And at the end David tried to break into a windmill. He wasn't successful so we did not have to spend the night in jail.

I hope you guys are having a great day. Have you ever been to Belgium? Did you watch the movie?