At the start of every day I wonder if there will be anything interesting to write about, and then I remember this is Mark & Robyn (i.e. the Fat Idiot Tourist and wife). We started the day with an early train trip from Amsterdam to Antwerp where we switched to an Intercity line to Brugge. When we got to the station in Amsterdam I noticed all of the trash receptacles were full. I didn't think much of it because it was early until an announcement was made that due to the strike of the national trash removers could "passengers please take their trash with them." At that point I noticed there was a lot of trash around-- it was over-flowing from every possible trash can in the station. It makes you wonder how long the strike will go and how much sympathy the trash removers get from the public. Guess they could push the trash into the canals and perform a flush into the North Sea. The first train was a high speed Thalys train that was continuing on to Paris. We had decided to purchase first class tickets because they were not that much more expensive and we like to be snobs. The train was fast and smooth and we got to Antwerp in about an hour.



The Antwerp station was pretty cool. The train platforms are on multi-levels, with the Thalys train coming in on the lowest level and the train to Brugge being on the fourth level. The station itself is quite beautiful, and best of all since we were in Belgium ,no trash. Robyn took around 700 pictures of the station I am attaching two.





The train to Brugge, although not an express, was relatively fast. The weather was cooler than in Amsterdam and it was raining sporadically. We are staying at the Crowne Plaza, which is right in the middle of Brugge next to the Markt. The best thing about all the travel I do is the status I achieve at various hotels, I am platinum with Holiday Inn so we were upgraded to a junior suite which is quite large even by US standards.







Robyn's only planned event for today was to visit de Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery in the old part of the city. There is no tram but there are hop on-hop off busses. We, however, had no clue if these would even get us near the brewery so we decided we would walk. Before heading to the Brewery, Robyn was determined to get some Belgium chocolates. We found a store and 31 Euros later I was carrying a satchel of Belgium chocolates in my backpack. I want to say that 31 Euros of Belgium chocolate gets pretty heavy on your back. We also stopped and had some frites. "Some" is a relative term because this is Robyn, after all, lover of all things fried, especially potatoes. She orders the large and I think she was a little offended when I suggested we share. Anyway, the frites were very good (the few I got to eat) and I had a beer to chase them down so I was happy.

It took me awhile to find the brewery in the rain but we got there in time to catch the last English-speaking tour. De Halve Maan is the last brewery in Brugge still brewing beer. It is family owned and currently run by the founder's great-great-grandson and his mother. The tour itself is not much because it is a small brewery, but it was fascinating seeing a lot of the older equipment that is no longer used. Our tour guide was a young woman from Alaska named Maggie who had been living in Belgium for about a year after meeting her future fiancé while working on her masters. She was obviously enjoying her job and I wanted to make sure she worked hard. There was a couple from Liverpool on the tour. The guy was a bit drunk, loud, and a little obnoxious. He and I bonded immediately, of course. It always happens that way-- the most obnoxious strangers on a tour gravitate to each other. We made Maggie work for her day's pay, but she had fun. At the end of the tour we were given a glass of their blond beer and we sat with the couple from Liverpool. The guy, Jason, was pretty animated and in the course of talking about something not important swings his hands out and knocks over his girlfriend's beer breaking her glass and getting a shard in his hand. It was a small cut but there was a lot of blood Our parenting instincts took over and I got paper towels and had him put pressure on the cut, Robyn of course has about 20 different types of band aids which we gave to him. It was a great way to end the tour, but the girlfriend was not happy with Jason as we were leaving.







On our way back to the hotel Robyn saw the canal boats and wanted to go for a ride, but I put my foot down and said no way. So about 10 minutes later. we were sitting on the boat taking a 30 minute tour. It wasn't too bad; the guy driving the boat was also the tour guide and he had the right amount of sarcasm to keep me entertained. One of the highlights is seeing an old dog named Fidel who lays on a windowsill just above the canal watching the boats. I am attaching a picture Robyn took of Fidel.



After the boat ride we went to dinner at an inexpensive (i.e. cheap) restaurant. A group of four young men sat at a table next to us minding their own business. When we got our food Robyn had cut up her pasta and then a fly started buzzing around. She waved her knife at it. This was the same knife that she used to cut up her pasta, and out of the corner of my eye I see something fly off the knife and towards the young men. Sure enough, tomato sauce landed on the inside of the jacket of the young man closest to Robyn. I point it out to her and she starts laughing and taps him on the shoulder, apologizes, and cleans off his jacket. They were from Canada and were laughing and constantly saying 'no problem.' So out of embarrassment I had the waitress send a beer over to the young Canadian. He got it just before they were leaving and the four of them downed it in about 30 seconds. Robyn says how did you drink it so fast, I responded 'they're Canadian; it is like drinking water.'

After dinner we found a bar called De Garre that was hidden down an alley near our hotel. Robyn found it on Trip Advisor and the only way we found where it was located was by looking at pictures where the alley was between two stores. They had a huge selection of beer including their own call Tripel de Garre which is what we had to drink. It was quite good.

Tomorrow we are going up to Brussels to see Grand Place etcetera. I still haven't found a belt but maybe I can find a Kohl's near Grand Place.