If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium!

OK, it's actually Friday but I wasn't gonna hang around London until next Tuesday but it is Belgium. I didn't get out of London the way I wanted to-bus to Dover, boat to Ostend, short train to Bruge. Evidently, there really isn't any boat from Dover to Ostend and the only boat that goes to Ostend doesn't allow foot passengers so that was bad. But I did manage to get a seat on the Eurostar train that goes throught the chunnel. That was good but it cost a bunch of LBS that was bad but it was almost the exact amount of LBS I had left so that was good and that train ride took me all the way to Brussels and my Eurailpass got me the rest of the way so it probable worked out about the same cost wise but only took 3 1/2 hours instead of most of the day if not more than a day because of bad connections the other way.

My first stop off the train was at the TI center. It's right there in the station. I asked what's free for the tourist and what do the locals eat. Walking is free and the food. . .wait for it. . .besides chocolate. . .fries (they're really Belgian not French!) and beer! Ya gotta love this place, eh? Today, I did a mini - bus tour to get the lay of the land and sampled the local cuisine ;-) Bruge is the Venice of the North. Lots of canals and very gothic buildings including a reliquary (is that spelled right?) containing the (supposed) actual blood of Jesus Christ. Bicycling is a BIG deal in these parts and I'm not talking about $1000 bikes and folks in spandex, helmets and shoes that make you walk funny. The bikes are several steps above the free ones that that guy tried fixing up and leaving all over Portland to encourage biking and they are everywhere! An entire parking lot at the train station is there just for bikes. One tourist brochure provides tips on how to act like a local-Step1: Try to run over tourists with your bike. We do.

Well, I'm back to expensive internet so only look for updates every few days or so.

Hasta la bye-bye for now.