Why Clara loved Bruges

Our trip to Bruges, Belgium was filled with ups and downs. Overall we had a great Memorial day weekend but I think Clara's response to my friend Liz sums up the trip. When Liz asked Clara if she liked her vacation she responded "Yes, my parents kept wanting to buy candy." So Holly, consider yourself warned, this post will contain lots of talk on food. :)

We are experimenting with the best ways to travel off the island (that almost sounded like I am writing for LOST - but I'm not or I never would have ended it that way). This weekend we opted for an overnight ferry. All I can say is - wow, was that room small - especially when all 4 beds were out!

After a not-so-restful night and a delayed arrival thanks to technical difficulty, we met up with the owner of the apartment we were renting for the weekend. The place was perfect for our family and had a great location. We immediately set off to explore. We found a local Saturday market and had fun looking around. Devin ordered some croquettes to eat from a vendor but after they were bagged and ready to go, he realized that they were meant to be cooked at home. Devin had thought he would get them cooked and eat them as we walked. Awkward misunderstanding.

From the market, we walked to some museums. My favorite museum was the Memling Museum. While the art was beautiful, the architecture and design of this old building were amazing. We couldn't take pictures so I am sad about that.

Next we went to the Church of our Lady. We were able to see a sculpture by Michelangelo. It sat between two other sculptures and it was incredible to see the difference in detail - it was so impressive. We stayed for a few minutes and listened to a choir as well.

Here we are just outside of the church in the pretty garden.

By now it was time for frites with mayonnaise. Sounds gross, I know...but it is the local way to do it and it is so good. The mayo is much better than what I'm used to - meaning I'd never try it at home. :)

After walking around the city more and admiring beautiful streets like these...



...and stopping at Dumon's chocolate shop

(thankfully I brought plenty of dairy free chocolate from home to keep Jonas happy)


and seeing one more museum - the chocolate museum - we were close to heading home.

Good thing too because it was at this point in the day that Clara told me that her shoes were too small. Would have been good to know that before packing for our trip.

Anyway, Clara had been asking all day for some ice cream. I had promised earlier in the day when there were many ice cream stores in sight but the second half of the day I hadn't seen any. Finally I found one and they happened to have sorbet. The shop owner claimed the sorbet was only water, sugar and fruit so I bought a chocolate cone for Clara and a cup of passion fruit sorbet for Jonas. Two bites into his treat, Jonas pushed it away and said in his cute way "allergic". Sure enough within seconds his face started to swell up and he became horribly uncomfortable. Either the sorbet had milk or we've found a new allergy - passion fruit.

It was a stressful evening. Jonas was sick the rest of the night. First thing Clara did when we got home was to take off her shoes and socks - her feet looked awful. This picture barely does it justice.


The second thing she did was tell us she felt sick. In about 5 minutes it felt like her body was on fire and she asked to go to sleep without dinner. Needless to say, it was a long night.

The next morning we woke up to heavy rainfall and Clara still felt "poorly" as they would say in England. We had a lazy morning with Clara wanting her back rubbed and Jonas busy planning out our day using our handy guide book. By noon the weather and Clara started to improve so we decided to venture out and see how long we would last.

We walked to a new part of town and enjoyed the view of the canals, the Burg, and some really quaint roads.

We also saw this map of Brugges made our of lace.

We then ate a delicious Flemish meal. Devin ordered Mussels (apparently Belgium is known for its Mussels...but how cool would it have been to eat them in Brussels??) and I ordered the Flemish Stew that comes with warm applesauce. Sounds so weird together but it was GREAT.

Next we took a beautiful boat ride. I couldn't really get any good pictures of the view because we were crammed in so tight that we couldn't move very easily.

The boat ride worked up our appetites enough to buy some more amazing chocolate at Depla's (best chocolate truffle!!!!).



As we were walking we saw a sign advertising the best hot chocolate EVER. So I had to try it. I bought one cup and decided they were wrong...but Clara seems to have agreed with them.

Along our walk we also noticed a sweets shop that was currently making their own candies.

It was really cool to watch and so of course, I had to buy some. I couldn't decide on a flavor so I bought an assortment but that meant that it was a collection of candies that had been made as special orders. I opened the bag and on top was a candy with the name JONAS on it. How cool is that?


By now, Clara seemed completely better. One thing we had wanted to do was rent bikes and ride around the city. Devin's bike had a trainer bike attached to the back that Clara rode and mine had a seat for Jonas. Turns out Jonas does not like riding behind me. Maybe he could sense my nerves. I was nervous that I was responsible for keeping him safe on a bike, and him screaming throughout the city didn't help. Everyone was looking and that was loads of fun. To top it off, he had a poopy diaper before we even started, so we were headed home before starting our journey. Needless to say, we never got him back on the bike so Devin & Clara toured around while I stayed home with Jonas. It looked beautiful...



That same night, Devin went on a quick night tour and took some pictures of the city all light up.

This is my favorite because I just love the 4 swans all together enjoying the canal without any boats and tourists to disturb them.


For our last day in Belgium, we decided to train to Brussels. We would only have a couple of hours before we had to get back to catch the ferry, but we decided it would be worth it. It was. While we barely scratched the surface of Brussels, the city square alone made the train ride worth it.
This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip. Doesn't it look like Clara is strangling Jonas? Even his expression looks that way. It just makes me laugh because it was so candid.

This was the icing on the cake in Brussels...I mean, were else can you find a statue of a little boy peeing? Classic.

And we ended with what we came to Belgium for...a delicious sugar waffle - YUM!!!

Our train ride back was filled with fun times. Devin got to change multiple poopy diapers in a train bathroom (even harder than an airplane) and he also got to catch throw up courtesy of you-know-who.

Yes, traveling with us is lots of fun and always an adventure...but at the very least, you'll get lots of treats. Even on the drive home from the ferry when quiet, happy kids were so worth the bribe.

We loved our weekend in Belgium, even with sick kids, multiple poopy blow-outs, throw up, and bike-phobia. It was so beautiful and slow-paced and we always have fun as a family.

Now it is back to normal life with normal eating habits...so boring!