Euro Day 12 - Brugge

Woke up and went down and rented a bike for the week so I could try and look like a local.  Bikes are everywhere.  In the Netherlands there are 16.5 million people and 16.4 million bikes with 25% of trips to work made on bikes.  Belgium is almost as bike crazy.

Our goal was to get to the train station by 10am for a quick 25 minute ride to Brugge.  I have made a concerted effort this trip to pull back the reigns a bit on my aggressive scheduling and let nature takes its course.  This resulted in us sauntering down to the train station at 12:30.  Serenity now, Serenity now.

 Amsterdam, Ghent and Brugge share a vibe and look of very old stone building along quaint canals.
 Amsterdam differentiates itself with size and a NYC crowded and crazy vibe.  Ghent is a bit more of a student and working city (hidden gem !).  Brugge is crawling with tourists and since there are no 'car free' zones - it creates a bit of a crazy scene with the tour buses, cabs, horse drawn carriages and swarms of octogenarians being shuffled around.

We knew going in that it would be a tourist trap unworthy of our time or money but we could not resist adding the French Fry museum to the illustrious list of museums we have attended.  I am certainly much more educated on spuds then I was prior to walking in but think I could have found some better uses of that 7 euro.

Some light rain moved in later in the afternoon and we cut short our trip a bit after grabbing an early dinner and stocking up on some Belgian chocolate.  We must have gone by 6 chocolate shops that claimed they had the 'Best Chocolate in Belgium".   Jake and I are always tempted to recreate the scene from Elf when he enters the coffee shop with the World's Best Coffee shouting "congratulation!  You have done it ! The world's best cup of coffee !".