fast car.

Day 3

Sort of the last day as the next day was just us buying some chocolates and then going to the airport.

Day trip time! 

A return ticket to Bruges costs 14.40euros on a weekend but 24.50euros on a weekday. Not quite sure why a weekend ticket would be cheaper. Shouldn't they be charging more on weekends cause people travel more then?

Anyways, we only got in to Bruges around 12 cause obviously we did not leave early enough. Haha. Bruges is like a quaint little town though most of the people there were clearly tourists.

Fluffly swans near the canal. 

One thing I made sure to put on my list of must-dos in Belgium was to go for a brewery tour. And since we didn't go for any in Brussels, decided to go for one in Bruges which had really good reviews. It was 6.50euros which included a free beer. Super duper worth the money in my opinion.

Halve Maan brewery. The last brewery standing in Bruges. 

View from the roof of the brewery. 

No filter no photoshop and it still looks gorgeous.

#7 Their local beer. Nice and refreshing.

Our tour guide was really funny and had a great sense of humour. Some things I learnt from the tour:

1. Sparkling water is great for curing a hangover.

2. You do indeed get drunk faster on beer/wine (fermented alcohol) when compared to vodka and such (distilled alcohol).

3. The shape of the glass in which you drink your beer from makes a difference.

Getting to learn about the whole process of making beer makes me appreciate it much more because it is really quite an effort. 

Most of the places that were open for lunch pretty much served the same menu so we just settled for one that looked nice. It was 20euros for a starter (I had celery soup which was actually quite yummy), a main (1/2 roast chicken which I couldn't finish) and a dessert (peach melba). 

#8 Kasteel Blonde. Standard blonde really. 

One main attraction of Bruges is that they have Michelangelo's "Madonna and child" statue. However when we went to the church it's suppose to be in, it was closed. Boo. But I suppose seeing as it was 5pm and everything in Europe closes early it's understandable. Oh well.

We had been in Bruges for five hours now and we hadn't even reached the city centre. Talk about walking at a leisurely pace. It could also be due to the fact that we walked into almost every chocolate store we passed, which is practically every store on the road. Finally made it to Market square which is sort of like the city centre but not quite the city centre. 

Really liked the way the lights gave the 'yellow' tinge to the buildings. 

Market square is next to the actual city centre where the town hall is. However, since market square is surrounded by restaurants, it was more lively whereas the city centre was empty.

Town hall.

All the gold detailing. 

Since there wasn't much else in Bruges, we took the train back to Brussels and chilled while trying a little something we bought from the brewery earlier.

#9 Their new quadruple beer.

11% beer is no joke.

More like stout I'd say but it tasted nice. 

And that's about all there is to talk about my Belgium trip. 

A good break from the ho-hum of Manchester.