We’re getting lazy. Instead of posting all of the pics here, I am uploading them to Picassa and will link to them from here. I have convinced Kevin that it’s okay to be lazy when you are on vacation…

From Bruges, Westvleteren & Antwerp

Here are some pics:

  1. our night trip up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower (I was too chicken to go to the top…pregnancy vertigo??)
  2. the Louvre
  3. night cruise down the Seine and dinner near the Sacre Couer (Basilica)
  4. Bruges day 1
  5. Bruges, Westvleteren & Antwerp

Monday morning we got up, had our delicious hotel-provided breakfast (yummy!!) and headed out to do the Rick Steves walk around Bruges. We saw the primary sights and had a snack before leaving. A Belgian waffle with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. I highly recommend our hotel. The proprietors were very nice and the place was immaculate: Hotel Patritius.

Then we went to Westvleteren to pick up 72 bottles of the best beer in the world. The beer is made by Trappist monks in case you didn’t go look at the links describing it. And so we had to pick it up from their monastery in the middle of Belgium. It was very beautiful countryside and as serene a locale as I’ve ever seen. Everything went very smoothly and we loaded the 3 cases into our trunk.

At that point we were starving so we stopped in the nearby town to get some lunch. Kevin decided it was time to try……STEAK TARTARE!!!! Ewwwwwww. You can see some pics of that meal. Needless to say, he ate most of it and didn’t die. He didn’t even throw up and now feels a sort of pride in having conquered such a beast. Eww.

Back in Bruges, we had a lovely little stroll as it started to sprinkle rain. It didn’t stop raining until this morning, Wednesday. Tuesday was mostly a driving day, which was good since it was raining fairly heavy all day, even when we got here to Koln. We’re just here for one night on the way to the Mosel Valley. We figured since it was just one night we would stay at the cheapest Hilton we could find. Turns out that the Hilton is right in the center of everything, a few blocks from the Dom (the primary sight to see in Koln). Today we will go have breakfast (free!!) and then trapse around Koln before heading off to the beautiful and castle-laden Mosel Valley for 3 nights.

Kevin is also posting pics on www.kev-mo.com if you are interested!!!