This morning, we packed up in Luxembourg, paid the cheapest proper bill for camping so far - €13 - and headed for Brussels (I say "proper bill" because we paid €10.50 in Oberstdorf, Germany for one night, one person, two tents due to a small language mix up).

The trip to Brussels was mostly fine, but we had to fight our way through a bit of traffic near the end. We were already sensing a disturbance in the force on the way to the campsite, and when we got there we saw it was not quite up to the standard we now expect (i.e. it was a dump). Thankfully, Bruges was about an hour away and came more highly recommended by our friends, so we decided to go that way after a quick look around town.

We needed internet access to find a hotel for the night in Bruges as the weather was awful, so we reluctantly went to a cafe with wifi and were forced into buying two enormous Belgian hot chocolates. Yum! Warmed up on the inside, we braved the rain and saw a few of the sights of Brussels, including Mannekin Pis, a tiny statue fountain of a boy peeing, who is a major icon of Brussels and features in nearly every souvenir. We also saw the Old England building which houses a musical instrument museum (we were too late to go in). It is one of the few buildings still standing after the French invasion, despite the fact that they were aiming for this particular building!

The best time to leave Brussels is of course in rush hour traffic, so we did exactly that and appreciated the ambience of hundreds of hooters/horns going off needlessly in all directions.

We finished the day at a restaurant in Bruges where Rebecca got her first taste of Belgian cherry beer while I enjoyed sampling the Trappist monks' brew. Sorry Germany, you've lost your crown - the Belgians have you beaten.

- Brett