18 - 5/18/2015 - Brugge

Monday, May 18 - Brugge

A couple of mini-landmarks today; we broke the 3,000 mile mark shortly after leaving Reims and a couple of hours later crossed the border out of France into Belgium - we'll touch on France again at the very end of the trip when we drop out of Switzerland into Chamonix on our way to Marseille for the trip home on June 16.  A parting tip of the hat to France for suddenly permitting our credit card to work at toll booths starting four days ago. Better late than...etc.

The day started out fresh and clear as a bell until we headed north and it got progressively grayer. We drove first to Brugge where we walked around the older and historic part of the city and took a sightseeing boat ride on the canals, which gives an alternative view of the area. 

     Sculpture that our boat driver commented on as "strange".

Low tunnel:

A few minutes after we docked it began to rain lightly, but steadily. A bit later one of the canal boats passed under a bridge we were on - all we could see was the tops of tip-to-tip green umbrellas huddled under by passengers. Not the ideal way to see the view, much of which is in the "up" direction.

We walked around a bit before heading back to the car.  Will definately spend more time here next time.  Delightful - yet touristy - old town.

Lots of traffic:

Saw these windmills all over:

Back to the car for the remaining relatively short hop to Brussels. Our hotel was again wisely picked by Navigator Pam, the trip's lodging maven, this time for its location in the center of the city. It means that we can walk to most of the sights we want to see tomorrow for a busy tourista day.