Spring Break Part 2: Ghent and Bruges

My loyal fan base will know that I've already mentioned my day trip to Ghent and Bruges.  If you don't know, clearly you aren't a true believer and we don't want you here...just kidding.  Please keep reading.  I need you.

Miranda and I felt that we'd just about covered Brussels after a day and a half, so when we saw the sign in our hostel for the bus trip to these two other cities, we jumped on it.  It was an organized tour, but we mostly went off and did our own thing instead of outing ourselves as tourists with the big group.  I wish I had a picture of our tour guide, as I'm pretty sure he's a Belgian gangster or something.  Why did I jump to this conclusion?  For two reasons:  1, he looked like he could potentially have dangerous friends, and 2, he's Belgian, which actually makes him adorable and not much of a threat.

Ghent is a really cool little town that I wish we could have spent some more time in.  It's very picturesque, and thankfully not as touristy as Bruges turned out to be.  The one drawback--it was virtually impossible to find a cup of coffee to-go on a Sunday morning.  Barbarians.

In the afternoon, our bus headed to Bruges.  If you've seen In Bruges with the lovely Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, you'll know that Bruges is a sleepy little place where not much happens and not many people gather.  Unfortunately for those of you die-hard fans of the movie, I have to tell you this is pretty completely not true.  Sure, the town is cute.  It has canals, it has adorable little Flemish buildings, it has swans.  It also has tourists, lots of them and shopping to match.  Despite this, the town really was enjoyable and when I have a million dollars and can afford these things, I would love to go back and partake in some of the shopping.

Ghent

Crazy graffiti street in Ghent

Fairly dead on a Sunday

Canal

Main square

There was a bird market on the square the day we were there

Cutest kid on the face of the planet

There was also a flea market around the corner

Of course, we got a heart shaped scone-like pastry

Crossing a bridge

Another shot of the main canal in Ghent

Pablo's Mexican Food.  I kid you not.

Crazy medieval fortress

Bruges

Canal with swans in the distance

Convent

Another canal

Don't worry, they didn't run over the swan

Tourists--the main attraction!

Statue in the main square

Main square

Belgian chocolate

Belgian lace

Building from which Brendan Gleeson fell in In Bruges

Hey, there's me!

More Belgian chocolate

Same big tower from inside the building's courtyard

This bagpiper invaded our nice sit-down in the square and wouldn't go away.  We noticed that people only gave him money if they had small children to run up and put it in his case.

Final shot of Bruges before heading back to Brussels