Bruges, Belgium

This weekend was a special treat for us, in more ways than one. On Friday morning, we packed up a rental car, and with our good friends Eduaro and Priscila, headed north for Bruges, Belgium. We had two solid days of sightseeing, exploring, mostly beautiful weather, and chocolate.We also had a lot of chocolate.

Did I mention the chocolate? I think you get the point...

Although our lifelong memories of Bruges will undoubtedly contain sweet images of chocolate shops lining the streets of the city, we had other great experiences as well. We were lucky with the weather, which had been forecast to be rainy and cold, and while our Brazilian friends did have to practice gearing up for the chilly air, we were blessed with blue sky for most of the weekend.

The first thing we noticed upon arriving in Bruges was this enormous balloon floating in a main square of town. We'll let it speak for itself.

The next thing we noticed was the incredible architecture of the buildings in Bruges, giving this Medieval city lots of charm. Particularly noticeable were the rooflines of the buildings, all intricate and distinctive.Bruges also gets its charm from the beautiful canals streaming through the city. It's known as "Venice of the North", and is a very romantic city, even having a "romantic neighborhood" with a lake named "Love Lake". Below are some pictures from our canal boat ride.After the canal ride, we took a tour of the only remaining brewery in Bruges's city center, named "De Halve Maan" (which based on the logo we assume means "The Half Moon").We had a fantastic tour guide who kept us entertained, and taught us a little about beer-brewing, and also shared with us access to the roof, where we enjoyed an amazing view of this amazing city.
The rest of our trip was spent eating and drinking, as usual. Bruges is well-known for its huge selection of regional beers, and stores, bars and restaurants all around the city helped us to greet some old friends, (like Hoegarden and Leffe blond) and get to know some new flavors (like Martin's Pale Ale and Rochefort).

And, of course, in addition to eating chocolate all weekend, we had to sample the mussels!

Overall, we all loved Bruges and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nice weekend getaway filled with good food, lots of beer, and beautiful scenery. Looking forward to going back someday!