Day 6

Today was a very relaxing day compared to all of my previous ones. After waking up at 7 but realizing that the showers didn't open until 7:30am, I laid in my bed for a while. Breakfast was decent and I had some nice toast and cereal before we embarked on our journey. Today's itinerary was Quasimodo's Triple Treat Tour which included a visit to Belgium's oldest castle, a very large Chateau, a chocolate store and a nice bar. We spent a little bit of time exploring the city before our tour bus picked us up at 9 and the sky did not look promising. We got picked up for our tour in Zand Square and were off to Tilligen Castle, the oldest castle in Belgium. It had been rebuilt several times so it wasn't too old, but it still looked neat. And it was owned by some fancy company, so no visitors allowed. Oh well. I did get to see a black swan for the first time. It was very pretty, in a sort of eerie way. We hopped back on our nice air conditioned bus and drove over to the Chateau of Loppem. I learned that a Chateau is not a castle, but meerly a very large house owned by very rich people. And boy was this house huge. It had 32 rooms just in the main house! Who needs 32 rooms??? Apparently the VanCaloun family. It was built in the 1800's and was historical for a number of reasons. During WWI the King of Belgium stayed there for 1 month and made some very important decisions for his country. Luckily this one was open to the public so we got to spend some time inside looking through all of the rooms. After a good bit of time there, and a very interesting and lengthy history lesson from our tour guide, we were finally ready for lunch. We stopped at some restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had sandwiches (which I think I might be getting sick of). But what I wasn't getting sick of was the Belgian waffles that they brought out for us. Man, that was probably the best waffle that I have ever had in my entire life. It wasn't round, like I thought, but it was crunchy and soft at the same time, covered in sugar and creme, and a little piece of heaven in my mouth. It was gone withing 3 minutes. This was also the location of the oldest Neogothic structure in Belgium. There was a barn like building out back and it was almost 800 years old! And still intact! After lunch, we hopped back on the tour bus and drove over to the town of Damme. The town hall, not to be confused with the church, was very beautiful and had some interesting stories to go along with it. Did you know that women who were convicted of gossiping had to wear very heavy stones around their necks and walk/crawl with them around town for a whole day? I don't know if I would ever gossip if that was my punishment. After a quick WC stop (WC = Water Closet = Bathroom)we walked over to the real church. Because the city had gone through so many different phases of population and riches, the church was pretty big, but sadly, most of it could not be used anymore. We went to the back, which is where the cemetery was, and learned about why they bury bodies above ground in Europe. Because they are so close to sea level, if they would bury the bodies under ground, they would get washed away. But sadly, some of the poorer people have to do this, and their bodies, or pieces of them, get churned up to the surface. Don't worry, I got a picture of "Uncle Henry". Haha. And on that creepy note, we left for the Chocolate shop. Now, I love chocolate, and I love eating chocolate, so this was the perfect destination for me. We learned about how chocolate is made (and why Belgian chocolate is the best) and then we got to sample many many different kinds. Knowing me, I assumed I could eat 30. Sadly, after only 3 I had to stop because they were so rich. I did manage to eat one more before I left though. After the chocolate induced diabetic coma I was sure to go in, we took the bus back into the city and stopped at a bar to sample some fine Belgian Beers. We had another little history lesson on beers and learned that there are over 750 different Belgian beers. Each comes in its own special glass as well. After sampling these, we left to go back to Zand Square. We left the tourguide (but not for long. We have another tour on Wednesday) and headed out to look for food. Luckily we found some kind of grocery store and were able to get some nice soup for dinner. After getting back to the hostel and relaxing for a bit, we left again to see the city at night. And it was at this point that I confirmed that Bruges shuts down at 7pm. We took some really nice pictures though. And that was it for the day. I didn't do too much walking so my legs held up. But I can't say that for tomorrow. We will be exploring the city on foot.