Bruges

'We had an interesting night on Saturday night in Bruges. Our room was right over the bar and outdoor patio, so it was fairly noisy. Then just before 3 am, three men came into the room right beside ours. The one was clearly trashed out of his mind, swearing at the top of his lungs and pounding the walls with his fists such that it sounded like he was going to come through our wall. The other two were trying to calm him down with words such as, ''We're here for you, buddy.'' He pounded around for around 30 or 40 minutes, sometimes quieting down and then picking back up again. We tried to phone down to the main desk, but couldn't get through. Karen was about to walk down, when he finally subsided into silence. Then about 5 or 10 minutes later we heard the retching on the floor and the sound of water as his buddies tried to clean up. The next morning, we reported to reception, who told us he'd broken the window as well.

After a short night, we headed into town for some sight-seeing. We started off with a boat ride around the canals of Bruges...beautiful. Then we walked to the Market Square where Karen snapped pictures of the old medieval town hall and other buildings to her heart's delight. This was followed by a trip down what I call 'Chocolate Row' due to the string of chocolate shops in a row. We dropped some money on some liqeur truffles there. Then on to the Frieten Museum and Chocolate Story where we learned about the origins of Belgian (French) Fries and chocolate. The trip wasn't complete without a stop at the Fry Shop where we sampled some fries with mayonnaise the way the Belgians eat it.
One of the many chocolate shops in Bruges.
Karen gleefully holding up her butter truffles.
At 4 pm, we took the bus back to the train station for our next journey. For a small place, we were rather surprised how many bicycles there were parked there!
And the benefits of travelling first-class on a German train with a Eurail Pass--here is Karen ensconced in our glass compartment (well, glass doors separated our compartment from the rest of our coach anyway) with cushy headrests and a lovely dropleaf table. There were lights that you could turn on and off above you, much like the lights in airplanes. Our compartment had seats for six, but for the duration of our trip, we were the only two people in it.

Our transition from Brussels to Koln went well, but we had trouble getting the train the rest of the way to our friends' house in Roisdorf, so after arriving in Koln at 8:15, finally met them at 10:20 pm. After having not seen them for 6 years, we had a good chinwag for several hours thereafter.