I heart Bruges (unoriginal?)

Last night I made a disclaimer about the time and being tired.... yet tonight it's close to 1:30 am and I feel I can't make the same excuse... so I'll post a photo.

This is us on a canal boat tour of Bruges - very touristy but then again, we are... tourists. It was actually quite nice and not a waste of time at all, plus the weather was perfect!

We started the day off slowly - irritatingly enough the people in the apartment below us were complaining of a leak in their ceiling from (potentially) our shower/toilet. We hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary but we agreed to stay in between 10 and 12 today so a plumber could come and check. We thought perhaps that Belgians actually adhered to this timeline so we patiently waitied when in fact it was 12:05 and they hadn't shown up so we decided to leave. Do we really wait around all day for a plumber regarding a problem that really isn't ours??? Plus, we are here on vacation, are we supposed to sit in an apartment all day waiting for someone to come and fix a leaky pipe? That isn't ours? (Turns out that tonight after dinner we get home and there's a note that a plumber will be showing up tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.... we'll see I guess.) Kind of irritating to be involved in this to begin with - but we'll be good citizens and wait I guess. Urgh.

Okay, sorry, I digressed. We left and met my mom, Jennie and Nathan for a canal boat tour. It was nice and then we had lunch at a cute restaurant overlooking the canal. My mom and Nathan fought (briefly) over who would pay the bill and Nathan won when he made an evasive move and pretended to go to the bathroom. Well done.

We followed that up by a walk up the bell tower (663 steps). It was very narrow and with people going up and down at the same time it made for a slightly harrowing experience. I'm not sure if it was worth it or not but it was something that needed to happen - with the requisite picture taken at the top. We headed down at 3:59 pm thankfully because we heard the bell starting to ring at 4 pm and it was LOUD! If we would've been at the top next to the actual bell at that time we all would've needed hearing aids afterwards.

After an afternoon rest we headed out to dinner. We walked the back streets for probably half an hour debating the merits of different places before finally deciding on a restaurant. It turned out to be great in the end and I'll spare the details. (No I won't... we had a shrimp and garlic appetizer followed by amazing steak with bernaise sauce. Yum.)

My mom nicely offered to watch the girls tonight while Jeff and I went out on the town with Jennie and Nathan. Disclaimer - it's a Tuesday night in sleepy Bruges. We found a little pub that managed to stay open untl midnight and we sampled a few local brews. The converation was funny (I may have cried my mascara off) and we quietly stumbled home afterwards. I was dying for a Belgian waffle but the town was literally asleep aside from a french fry stand in the main square. I made due with a glass of water at home instead. (I struggle on...)

It was a great day with good friends and family. Smiles all around...!