Thu, 06 Nov 2003

author Liz	location Sydney, Australia
posted 09:33 AEDT 14/02/2004	section Europe2002/Europe/Belgium ( all photos )

Cycle Tour out of Brugge ( No photos )
On Thursday morning, Tim and I organised our own breakfast of tea and bread with peanut butter, and the we spent a couple of hours at the hostel trying to catch up on our journals.
Some time after 11am, we headed out to explore a bit more of Brugge. We looked around more of the streets, and spent a while looking in a few of the lace shops and other tourist shops. We also bought a serving of frites and sat in the middle of Markt to eat them and enjoy the sunshine.
For the afternoon, we went on a bike-ride tour that took us out of Brugge, through the pretty country-side, into the villages of Damme and Ostkirke, and almost as far as the border with the Netherlands. Riding through the country-side was great. The guide told us about the farm crops, and the nearby cows, the many canals we rode over or alongside, and an old German gun bunker that we stopped at. The countryside around Brugge is packed full of interesting history, most of which I knew nothing about, so apart from enjoying the ride, we learnt heaps.
The villages we stopped in were small and simple, but very pretty and again we learnt a lot about the history of these villages. We saw a couple of old flat-topped towers that we learnt were once used as light houses when boats had been able to come much further before the land silted up.
About half-way through the ride, we stopped in a small village to chat, and Tim and I had another Belgian tradition - waffles. They were much lighter and tastier than I had expected, and I really enjoyed mine.
Back on the bikes, it was now getting very cold outside, so it was good to get moving. We stopped a few more times to learn more, enjoy the gorgeous views and take a couple of photos. We got back to Brugge shortly after sunset, and although we had ridden close to fifty kilometres, I was suprised that both Tim and I felt quite good and not too tired out.
We stopped at a supermarket to get some food, and then back at the hostel we cooked and ate our dinner. Later on, Tim, myself and Daniel (a guy from Brisbane who we had met the day before) went out to a couple of pubs together. The second pub was nicer than the first, and we tried a few more Belgian beers before heading back to the hostel for a good night's sleep.

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