Liege, Belgium July 22, 2012

More Brugge

After a relaxing morning packing up our backpacks, we headed back into the town of Brugge. We first did the boat tour through the canals of Brugge. It was great and even received the Rick Steves group discount. It is always good to put more money into the beer fund. We were a little hungry so we decided to get some more frites (French fries) but with ketchup. The ketchup here is a little sweeter than heinz. Very good. The frites here are definitely memorable! After our snack, we headed to a small history museum that was quite interesting. It had rooms decorated in flemish old world style. Hat maker,barrel maker and even a shoemakers shop. It was a very good history lesson.

More Carol Happy Pills

Now for more chocolate shopping. We found Dumons chocolate shop and of course bought some more chocolate. I will say Belgian Chocolate is delicious! We then decided to squeeze in one more museum. So we went to the archeological museum. It was a hands on museum, great for kids. We have really seen most of Brugge, so we decided to head to the train station to buy our tickets to Leige before we picked up our backpacks from the hotel. After we got our tickets we had 10 mins until the train left, so Charlie decided to challenge me in a race to get our packs and to get On the 2:58 train. Well, we made it to both of our surprise! Running with a backpack is always challenging but fun! So we have been relaxing on our 2 hour train ride. The scenery is beautiful and the train quite comfortable. Next stop Liege for 1 night so we have a shorter train ride tomorrow to Aachen, Germany.

Carol of CNC We arrived in Liege at 5:00 and went to buy our train tickets to Aachen for tomorrow. This is the second time we have gotten tickets for cheaper than the advertised fare on line. I am happy about that.

Great Dinner

We then check into our hotel and it is about three times the size of the ETAP in Brugge and very modern. Because of this and not wanting to walk to town, we decide to go to the grocery store and eat in. We head back to the train station, double check the departure time for tomorrow morning and go shopping. Half price sandwiches and a salad, two beers, two large apple pie strudel things, and a bag of Curly peanut classic makes for a full meal for 13 Euros. The Curlys are like cheese doodles only made from ground peanuts, really yummy and great with the beer. They should get these in the U.S. It feels good to just relax and be in early because we are retired, not dead, if you know what I mean; wink wink , nudge nudge. That is all for today. See you in Germany!

Expenses                                                                                                                                                    12.80 E- Canal Boat Tour                                                                                                                           3.45 E- Frites with ketchup (.75E extra for ketchup)                                                                              5.75 E- Belgian chocolate (Carol happy pills)                                                                                       40.20 E- Train tickets to Liege                                                                                                               55.60 E- Hotel Husa de la Couronne                                                                                                     13.34 E  Gourmet grocery store dinner, 2 sandwiches, two beers, salad, dessert, and snack. Miles Walked – 5.4 miles                                                                                                                   Gordons  Finest Red Beer in a can 8.4% Westmalle Trappist Tripel. 9.5%