BELGIUM - DAY 3

Had an earlier start today as we were heading off to Brugge and Ghent on a day long tour. The weather tricked us beautifully. We had all dressed for a sunny spring day and even thought it was lightly raining the temperature wasn't too bad. But it didn't stay that way for long.

We boarded the bus and made our way to Brugge. When we arrived and stepped down, we were hit with an artic breeze or should I say gale and rain. The temperature had drop about 10 to 15 degrees and we were freezing. However we were determined to see all Brugge had to offer.

The tour started with a walk through into the Market Square with the bell tower, that leans to the right, and the medieval Chapel of the Holy Blood. This chapel is suppose to hold the blood of Christ. We headed off in the direction the tour guide told us to go to get to the chapel only to not be able to find it. We asked in the local museum and was told it was back in the other square so we headed back there. Once again we couldn't find it, so we asked another person and found out we were in the right place the first time, however we had run out of time as we were heading down to the canals for a boat ride.

We clambered aboard the boat and huddle together for warmth as we slowly made out way through the several miles of canals with the boat driver pointing out different buildings like Saint John's Hospital, supposedly the oldest hospital in Europe (which we were informed was a hospital opposite Notre Dame in Paris), Our Lady's Church and the 'dreamy' Lake of Love. Please, it was a slightly wider section of the canal with lots of swans swimming about. Nothing 'dreamy' about it.

We stiffly climbed off the boat and were taken to a Belgium Chocolate shop. Heaven. It was warm, and we got to sample the merchandise. Yum! Belgium chocolate is definitely better than anything you can get in Australia. We couldn't resist and purchased a box of Lady Chocolates, supposedly the best there is. Couldn't wait to dig into them.

Next we were granted time to eat lunch. This we did outside as we had bought our own and couldn't sit at any of the cafe seats. Our fingers turned blue and we couldn't feel them by the time we had finished. So to try to warm up a little bit we wandered down to the convent of the Benadictine nuns. Angelique had to be quiet, super hard for her, to show respect for their spiritual wellbeing.

Back on the bus out of the wind we made our way to Ghent. If anything it was even colder there. We got off the bus and while Pasqual and the girls went see some bridge, Grandad and I had a hot chocolate and waited for them to return.

We then went into St Bavo's Cathedral, home of the world famous late medieval 'Mystic Lamb' painting. We didn't get to see it though as they had covered it up to restored it. Instead we saw a hugh Ruebens painting. We wondered how he possibly painted it as it was so big. Then we wandered down into the cathedral's crypt. It was fascinating and huge. It was full of memorials, headstones of wealthy people dating from the 13th century.

It was an interesting day if extremely cold and wet.