We're back from Brugge

We're back and we're better than ever! Well, we're actually back and pretty much the same as we were before we went but alas, we're back. Our trip was so much fun. It was relaxing. It was exactly what we needed.

Click the link to see the pictures we took while we were there. Unfortunately shutterfly ate most of my commentary so I'll repeat it here!

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The first twelve or so pictures are from the awesome Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival. It was AMAZING. It was probably one of the coolest things I've seen in my lifetime. If any of the readers that are in Europe can get to Brugge I highly recommend it. I think it will continue on until January and I really just can't say enough great things about it. It was probably the highlight of my trip. Unfortunately we ran out of batteries halfway through the exhibit so didn't get to take pics of everything (stop rolling your eyes, it's not like we meant to!). You didn't get to see the gi-normous ice slide that we got to go down or the ice bar where we warmed up with some hot chocolate. It was seriously fabulous.

The next group is just different pictures of the unique buildings in the city. I think we've captured the cuteness of the city and all of the old, sweet buildings. When the city is quiet at night I swear that I'm on a movie set, not in a real city. It's something that you just have to experience to really fully appreciate I think.

They are all ready to celebrate Christmas in Brugge and have their open Christmas market up and running along with an open outdoor ice skating rink. Neither Marco or I can ice skate so we didn't make fools of ourselves but everybody else seemed to be having a ball. We saw a great fire/juggling/comedy act in the streets one evening but only got one really good picture of one of the fire guys.

Pay close attention to the lone Christmas Tree picture. If you look hard you can see there is snow falling from it! The tree sits in an umbrella that has a vacuum that sucks the little "snow" balls shooting it out of the top of the tree again so there is a constant snowfall.

Then you have more pictures of the city, buildings, neat trees and canals. Finally we finish up with some pictures of me at the Diamond Museum (the nutcracker looking guy is a robotic diamond making machine, the only working on in the world according to the museum) and the Chocolate Museum (complete with shot of chocolate boobs).

The last picture is us celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary with a nice quiet dinner in a cozy restaurant. The dinner was perfect up until the waiter spilled my hot chocolate all over my leg. Of course he apologised profusely but oddly enough he didn't take anything off of the bill to make up for it! Yes, we even paid for the spilled drink! Now I was expecting a free meal but when you spill a drink on somebody (a CHOCOLATE drink that could stain, at that) don't you usually offer to not make them pay for at least THAT drink? It was odd but what can you do. It was a great meal and we had a wonderful time so it was worth the chocolate leg.

We did enjoy some Belgian chocolate but not until yesterday. I'm fairly certain that in the small window of time I had to eat the chocolate yesterday I've eaten my share for the year! We bought some beautiful lace/flower doily type things which, unbeknowst to me, Belgium is also famous for. Overall it was just a wonderful trip, we had a fabulous time and we highly recommend that you see Brugge if you're ever in the neighborhood!