Brugge - the 2nd Day

I was pretty sick the night before so instead of

navigating a new city

we decided to go back to Brugge

 

and we're glad we did!

 



this watchtower was built in 3 different eras...

you can tell by the different architecture in the "layers"

 

we went to the Friet Museum

it was potatoe-y and awesome



 check out all the variety of potatoes

what colors and shapes!

 

isaac loved playing in the friet car

"frying" and "salting" his friets

 there were gobs of friet pictures and memorabilia

 

 

 probably the best lunch for a 2 year old ever

they have yummy dips - my favorite is curry ketchup

and we knew that europeans had a thing for dipping their fries in mayo

(blech!)

but then we got there and tasted their mayo...

it is no hellmans, let me tell you

i could eat their mayo with a spoon

(actually i did by accident one night...i thought it was a seafood mousse...it was that good)

 

we learned that we call friets "french fries"

because in WWI some french speaking Belgian soldiers

offered some to American soldiers

and the Americans thought they were french

hence "french fries"

 

then we meandered over to ChocoStory

a chocolate museum

check out this intense rainforest room

describing how they harvest the cacao pods

there was a whole gallery of chocolate creations

chocolate 3 little pigs anyone?

and they had a chocolate demonstration

complete with a taste

isaac liked that

i did too

sweeter than chocolate!

 

after these two museums aaron commented

what was Belgium like before discovering south america?!

Belgium without cocoa and potatoes...

definitley not the country we know and love!

 

 there was a Salvador Dali exhibit

they had paintings, sketches, illustrations for different books

including Alice and Wonderland

and the Bible

and an odd surrealist film he co-wrote

his work is bizarre but the exhibit was fabulous

watching the film while isaac napped

everyone's heard of belgian waffles

and we're not crazy waffle people so we weren't rushing to try them

but thought "hey, we're here so we should"

so we did



oh

my

gosh

 

now we are waffle people

these are crispy on the outside

doughy and just the right amount of gooey on the inside

sweet, melt in your mouth goodness

(i'm sure they bypass hips too)

 

 this was a beautiful chapel with intricate paintings

and a gorgeous wooden ceiling

it's claim to fame was a vial of Jesus' blood

we didn't look at it

but apparently it's there

 we wondered if our first waffle was an anomaly of greatness

so we tried another one from a waffle van

it was just as good

 

how well did we do Belgium?

friets - check

mussels - check

pralines - check

beer - check

lace - well, i saw some...does that count?

(and i realize that it's kind of sad that i took a pic of a postcard

please don't judge)

 

 

we were so glad we went back to Brugge

it ended up being a delicious day!