On day seven of our honeymoon, we woke up in Brugges and after a hearty breakfast at our B&B, set out to explore.
I love Brugges. I love how beautiful and small it is.
We headed to the Belfry first and got distracted by a Salvador Dali exhibit next door which ended up being a good thing as the Belfry was closed for renovation. I believe that Scott was grateful that the hike to the top of the Belfry was canceled.
We explored Brugges and walked through the town. We ended up at the Engels Klooster where the Swans hang out. Some where nesting and I watched them for a long time.
Then Scott convinced me to leave the swans so we could see the Klooster. It was there that I photobombed his self portrait (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottmon/4569013389/in/set-72157623943256978/)
The Klooster is such a wonderful, calm place. I think it might be the reason I love Brugge so much.
After the Klooser we walked the city walls for a bit before returning to our B&B.
While in Brugges, I was able to enjoy Rabbit Flemish Stew at Vlaamsche Pot. It was delicious and the memory of that dish will linger with me for quite awhile.
On our eight day, we packed up our stuff and headed to Amsterdam via train. We had a lay-over in Brussels along the way.
When we arrived in Amsterdam, we decided to take a taxi from the train to our apartment check-in location and then asked the taxi if he could wait to take us to the actual apartment. Well! He charged us 25 euro for a 2.5 km drive and didn't even take us to the actual apartment. That was another 1.5 km away over cobblestone streets with our luggage. Really it wasn't a terribly long walk but when you are dragging a suitcase over cobblestones, it is terribly far.
So after getting ripped off by the taxi driver, I was not prepared for the horror of the stairs in our apartment. This might be the one time I had a bit of a temper tantrum. There is a reason I married Scott and this experience really showed me why. I started to get worked up and was trying to call people to complain (I guess I thought they had magical skills and could make the stairs less steep?) and was flapping my arm around in a bit of fury. Then I started to trip over a stair on the landing. It was then that Scott told me to Chill The F**K Out.
And I did. I took a deep breathe and said, "OK let's conquer the stairs". He headed up the stairs and I handed the suitcases to him as he hulled them up to the first landing. Then we repeated that for the second set of staircases. Imagine your attic staircase. That was the main set of stairs for our canal apartment. The canal apartments are very, very narrow and if you ignore the scary stairs, they are quite awesome!
I'm very glad that we rented an apartment in Amsterdam. It gave us a chance to eat at "home" since by this time we were sick of eating out.
We spent that evening resting up and preparing for our next day in Amsterdam. It's one of my favorite cities, so I had a lot planned for us.
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