Day 10

Today we took a trip away from Brussels to Bruges, a very pretty old town about an hour train ride from Brussels. The first thing we did was find the city center, which was a busy square with cobblestones and shops lining the sides, plus a tall bell tower that could be seen from many points in the city. At this part of the day, the group split up; some of us wanted to climb to the top of the bell tower and others wanted  to explore the square. Later we met up again and started a personally-guided walking tour that took us through some of the city's side streets and to some very old churches and buildings. The town was not heavily affected by World War 2 like London was, nor did it experience a big fire like both London and Brussels (I think, so don't quote me on that) so most of the old buildings are still intact. You just don't get that kind of history in America. After the walking tour was a boat ride along the canal, which consisted of our tour guide telling us about the old buildings and churches. He even said everything three times, in French, English and German. When the tour was over we split up to eat dinner (or not, if we chose) and now  we are on our way back to Brussels, where we spend tomorrow before we travel to Paris.

--Cat