Its only about a 3 hour drive. We decide to break it up some and stop at Ghent. It takes us a few minutes to find a parking place. While we're looking, we find ourselves driving down a street on trolley tracks which looks strangely devoid of other traffic. A man walking by signals to us and we stop. He tells us we are not allowed to drive on this street and there is a policeman just down the next block who will give us a 40 euro ticket if he sees us. The man asks us where we want to be and we tell him - Here. He laughs and tells us how to get to the parking garage. I execute a quick U-turn and after a couple of turns, we find the garage.
Its 2:00 and we quickly learn that many restaurant's kitchens close at this hour. What? Are we in Italy? We cross the street and find an open kitchen. We look at the menu and ask what language is spoken here. The waitress says Dutch. Duh!! We should recognize it since that's where we've been for 5 weeks. I usually don't eat soup unless Lynda Adamson serves it to me or I have a cold. Today, I have a cold and we both have a delicious large cup of leek soup and share a dish of parma ham and melon. That's a good lunch.
Then its time to explore. As we do in many European towns, head for the churches. In this case, three very large churches within a good city block of each other. We also find the river.
On the way back we stop at a chocolate shop for an espresso. They give you one Leonidas chocolate truffle of your choice with your coffee. You got to love these Belgians. Excellent coffee and the best chocolate. This was a very good introduction to Belgium.
We walk back to the car and drive to Bruges. Louise has a little trouble getting us out of town and we end up circling a park unnecessarily, but we make it.
We get very close to our bed for the night but even though Louise says we have arrived we don't see it. I ask and am told its just a few more doors down the street. One of the entrances is a lady's hat store. That's confusing. I am met by Veronica who speaks English very fast with a heavy accent. We unload the car and she shows me the private garage to park in. She explains a hundred things to do and gives us a map and offers to help us with our bags - no lift and its 2 flights. We just have one bag so I decline but thank her. Remember, in Europe the 1st floor is one flight up from the ground floor. We're on the 2nd floor, but its okay. Our windows open to the street below which is very noisy, but later calms down. There is a church about a block away.
I'm whooped and we have some snack food that we brought with us, so we just stay in our room and rest. Tomorrow, we will explore.
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