The tower in the photo is the one used as the scene for the conclusion of the movie "In Brugge" staring a very young Colin Furth. In spite of the high body count it has some pretty dark humor in it. We had never heard of Bruges (pick your spelling - English or Belgium) until we saw the movie and it prompted us to want to visit, plus it is in the heart of beer county.
Getting here was not the hop/skip and a jump we had assumed. We discovered I am an amateur traveler and here is the proof:
I left my winter coat in the cab that took us to Dulles.
At the check-in counter I was told my carry-on was too big.
(I swear it measured 22" at home, including wheels. Maybe a problem w/ metric-inches? We
were flying British Airways.) I quickly dug into the suitcase and pulled out my camera and
some other valuables. After going through security I realized my laptop was still in the top
compartment of the checked bag. I figured it would end up shattered or stolen.
Landed at Heathrow at 3 am body time and instead of going through Customs, we had to go
through security screening again to catch our flight to Brussels. I forgot I had put a water
bottle in my carry-on. This caused me to have to go through a very thorough pat down and
have everything taken out of my bags and scanned.
So lessons were learned, but our adventure was not over. When we finally got on the plane it taxied to the runway right on time, only to turn around and head toward the maintenance area for BA. Technical problems. After a two hour delay we took off. Then when we arrived in Brussels we missed the first train to Bruges and had to take a later one. When we finally arrived we were two tired travelers, but things could have been much worse. Remember the first two lessons learned. Well, since we know the cab driver who took us to the airport, we gave him a call and he was back in fifteen minutes with my coat. Our luggage arrived in Brussels just fine, including a perfectly operational laptop. There was a note from the TSA that they had searched the bag, but I didn't even care. I was happy all was well.
I did notice a couple of things between Brussels and Bruges. Bikes were everywhere. Here is a shot of a foldable commuter bike that is on the expensive end of this mode of transportation. Most people use very basic bikes as seen in the shot below of a bike parking lot at one of the train stations.
The other observation is that the women are very fashion conscious. Even when casual there is a flair for style. The picture below is of our cab driver who took us from the Bruges station to our apartment.
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| You do not see DC cab drivers looking this good. |
Tomorrow the vacation truly starts.
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