Bruges

We wanted to make a side trip after completing the bike portion of the tour, so we took the advise of several friends and took the train to Bruges, Belgium on Saturday.

Our hosts for this portion of the trip were Benno and Frieda.  Their bed and breakfast "Absoluut Verhulst" was a welcome change from the cramped cabin aboard the boat.     On Easter Sunday, their daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter came over for dinner, and we got a chance to visit for a bit...

Chocolate and Beer 

The Belgians are famous for both their chocolate and beer.  We thoroughly enjoyed both... 

Bruges is a beautiful small city.  Everywhere you turn there's another interesting vista or detail...

Or dog to meet...    

Like Holland, it has it's share of windmills and canals and boat tours and horse-drawn carriage rides are available. 

Bruges does seem to have some of the neatest and oddest statues around...      

Talk about your weird coincidences, or, 6 degrees of Bruges...

At breakfast, we visit with the other couple staying at our B&B.  Mitch and Julie are a very nice couple from New Jersey.  As we chatted, we discovered some interesting connections: three of us had lived in Houston at the same time; Mitch and Julie lived within a couple of miles of some of the people we met on the bike tour (in fact, Bruce may be their town councilman); and, that Julie's mother Sharon had been one of Steve's contacts when his company set up a hyperbaric unit at Sharon's hospital in Peoria, Il.