Tour de Belgium

We had intentions of heading to Paris on Saturday, but lack of affordable hotels, and limited train schedule kept us in Belgium (apparently there is some tennis tounament taking place there - on clay courts?). And, after the Frenchmen at the train station scolded Erin for not speaking French, we decided to stay local. So we caught the next train for the coast, and headed out to a town called Oostend on the North Sea. We had lunch here (side story below), walked the beach a little and then got back on the train and headed inland to Brugge.

Our lunch in Oostend was probably the worst meal we've ever had. We found a local bar and ordered 3 Stellas and 3 hamburgers - seemed harmless. What came out was not what we expected. Each plate had two patties, no bun, and we still have no idea what type of meat / substance it was. It was accompnied by fries and a pile of lettuce with a large scoop of mayonnais. Aweful. Little did we know at the time, this was just the begining of our culinary adventure for the day - more later.

Brugge was very nice - a little touristy - but still very nice. Brugge is the home of Chantilly Lace (although Chantilly is actually a town in France), so Andy and Ryan were graced by Erin singing 'Chantilly Lace', and browsing all of the shops. The town center is quite nice, and the canal running through town looked like a great day trip on a boat. We walked around for a while, had a few more pints of Stella, and then boarded the train again for Ghent.

But, before leaving we had a couple notable meetings in the plaza. First we had one of those "small world" encounters when we ran into Mr. & Mrs. Little from Oxford, OH - both employees at Miami. We spotted Rich's jacket while, yes, you guessed it - having a pint of Stella. Turns out the Little's daughter, Megan, used to date Erin's brother, Ryan.

Then, amazingly, we found the true source of Flo Rida's song 'Low'. It was a 12 year old Belgian bread horse who has the orginal "Boots with the fur" (see picture below).

The final stop of the day was Ghent. A slightly larger city, about 45 minutes northwest of Brussels. After seeing the notable sights here (Cathedrals, canals, and plaza) we settled in for what turned out to be our second miserable dinning experience. Again it started out harmless. We had a nice table outside along the canal and happened to be next to two other Americans. They then shared their appetizer with us (which someone else had given them)- and told us that they had been waiting an 1 1/2 hours for their food. Well, we broke their record and got our food after and 1 hr 50 minutes. Andy and Ryan had raw hunks of rump steak (although Andy actually ordered kabobs) and Erin had cold mac cheese.

Even though the food was bad all day, we still enjoyed the pints of beer and all of the sights each town had to offer. Sunday awaits with a trip across the border to Aachen, Germany...

Op uw gezondheid!

Andy, Erin & Ryan