In Bruges

I am sure most of my film buff friends have seen the movie In Bruges starring Colin Farrell.  I saw it several years ago, Rick is pretty sure he slept through it.  Funny how I keep hearing references to the movie from other people attending this conference.  I remember thinking it was a decent movie, but I don't remember many details of the movie, so guess I will need to watch it again.
Rick's conference started on Tuesday, with an all day board meeting and a dinner in the evening.  Needing some down time before attending the board dinner with Rick, I spent the day roaming the streets of Bruges on my own.  Geoff and Linda went off exploring on their own as well and later when we compared notes realized I had been pretty much following them most of the day, I was just about an hour behind.  Bruges is a small city/town, very walkable with lots of crooks and crannies to explore.  The architecture is beautiful, the town is clean and well maintained.  It is a tourist town for sure and can get really busy in the main areas, but once you are off on the side streets you only see locals or school kids scurrying around.  Beer, chocolate and waffles are every where.  I love the huge displays in the windows.

 Our room at Bed and Breakfast Bariseele

 Beautiful buildings in Bruges

 Beer and more beer!

 Market Square

 The main canal through town

 Love the dog with this lady buggy driver

 And the cat in the window of this dress shop

 We saw this swan family the night before on the canal and today they were in the garden of this house.  They even had a ramp they could use to get up from the canal to the garden.

 More houses

A waffle with chocolate, afternoon treat.  No wonder I have to walk all day.

 Last night after the board dinner, Rick and I went to a small pub, located in this tiny little alley and had local beer.  The beers are strong and I was just a little tipsy.  We paid, walked out of the pub and since the stairs are steep, I was slow going down the stairs and getting out of the pub.  Thank goodness for being slow, because I had left my purse on the chair.  The bar keep ran out the door with my purse.  I should have given him a kiss!  Rick very seldom will leave a tip in Europe, but our two beers were 8.50 euros and he gave the guy a 10 euro bill and told him to keep it.  He had been nice helping us pick out our beers from the 100's offered - all in Flemish! I am sure he would have chased us down even if we had not left him a tip, but maybe the tip impressed him....lol.
So so far on this trip;  I have left my bath puff in Lauterbrunnen, face soap in Amsterdam and my nice black raincoat on the train from Amsterdam to Brussels....ugh.