Through Bruges

Day 3…

This will be the day I return home… Sigh! How is this the case?! On the other hand, I'm ready… being sooooo tired already! And of course, they're going to want to cram a ton of stuff into today AND all the traveling on top of it…

SO-- no need to rehash the yummy and wacky Dutch brekkie… Just one comment I forgot to make from yesterday… There is something wacky about the cream here-- it is brown… And not in a "this is so good and healthy and pure" kind of way. I mean, it is all those things, and I'm sure it's better than the stuff in the US… it is definitely intentional and not "off"… But I just didn't like it as much. Yet, the coffee wasn't as good as I like mine usually and it clearly needed something… So I added the weird cream… again and again… and then made a little face… But remember the Screaming Beans coffee-- no need for cream there! The coffee shouldn't be hidden by anything when it's so good. (Ooh-- I never mentioned. I picked out my beans-- Kenya… then they ground them for the drip filter… and pre-heated the filter and cup, and went through about 5 more steps, if you would believe it… before it was ready for the water to pour through it. And then I got the distilled lovely liquid at the end… :) Just imagine the smell, would you??!!)

Into the bus and ready to drive away… last photos of the marina and birds and such… and away we went! First stop: Bruges… about 3 hrs away… so I napped and read Curious Incident…

This little visit to Bruges was pretty much the reason I signed up for this particular tour. I REALLY wanted to visit the town during this trip. It was one of the ones that people kept talking about when I got back from the 98 visit that I *should* have gone too. And it's been driving me crazy ever since!! But it wasn't that easy to make happen… as it's not on any route without a few transfers… So it would have to be an "instead of" Amsterdam or Paris kind of thing… And THAT was not going to happen! But a tour bus, of course, has a bit more flexibility than a train… :)

The day was all about staying on a pretty tight schedule… and these Brazilian girls just would NOT get back on time, or bring their customs documentation, or whatever it was… But no one got left behind, which was the great threat hanging over the day… (For example, they made us take our passports with us when we got into Bruges, in case they had to ditch us there, at least we could get home on our own… THAT was the tone of the day…)

With that looming-- I wasn't at all interested in anything in Bruges that involved chunks of time. There was a brewery tour that ran on the hour, canal tours that were however long… Nope and nope. Rather, I took to my favorite method for seeing a place: I walked. My goal was to walk for one hour, and then spend the next two hours working my way back to the bus. And it worked out perfectly! I took 15 million photos on the well worn by now Nikon… And DID make time for a beer tasting at a cute little bar in town and a chocolate waffle… and some lace souvenirs for the aunts… And some more photos…

Weird thing happened in the bar: a woman walked in and said to me: are you from CAPA London?! I was recognized by an American tourist randomly in Bruges! She isn't MLP, the Missouri group I teach every week, but part of the larger group that is housed at the same building. She said my Global Foods class had sounded cool and she would have taken it if it was available to others outside of MLP. This was my win for the weekend, I think… :) And I don't know why they don't let more people take the class. It was great to have a tiny little class that could wander all over town easily. But a 20 person class would have also been fine, and fun, and would have been able to take advantage of group pricing for stuff!! Well, so that happened… :)

Back to the bus--note I'm writing this from London--so I didn't get left behind… spoiled the plot, didn't I?!-- next stop: a chocolate factory. And so we buy our Belgian chocolate… I am returning to London with cheese and chocolate, as is right and good and proper… :)

I have since decided that this extra little 30 minute stop is a smart strategy on Anderson's part… There is really a time issue this last day… all because of getting through customs and making the ferry time and TRYING to get into London before midnight… This extra stop allows them flexibility. If we leave 10 minutes late from Bruges, then that's 10 minutes less time to spend at the shop… And there's no where else for us to wander at the shop, so there isn't a danger of us not making the time to leave from there… I realized that if we were all early from Bruges (this has probably never happened), they would give us extra time at this shop…

Back into the bus for another long chunk of driving. Dozed off and read Curious Incident more… Then all the annoyances of bureaucracy crossing borders. They were there… Made me wish I was above the law and just went wherever I wanted whenever… But no-- we were in a line behind 10 other tour buses all coming across the channel on a Sunday evening… Sigh!!

I didn't piss off the border guard, which is good--and something I have been known to do… (Niagara Falls) It was a bit more complicated than usual b/c I'm here through April in the flat, but then I'm going to travel a bit before I leave May 20. I wasn't able to answer that question as well as I should have. BUT the guard liked that I said I was from San Diego originally-- "but mostly grew up in the Santa Cruz area"-- Him: "Ooh, that's cool!" Me: "Have you been?" Him: "No, but it's in all the songs and stuff, isn't it?" This is how it's been the whole time for me here, btw… CA still sells. And I'm still FROM there-- wherever I currently reside… And I never say San Francisco or LA-- it's always Santa Cruz or San Diego that they respond to… :)

Ferry ride back across-- this boat sucked compared to the other one… It was stuffy and crowded and there were fewer places to go on deck… AND I was starting to regret all the bread and cheese and pastries and chocolate… AND it was particularly choppy windy weather… Lots of us were looking a bit green…

Finally off the boat (kiss ground) and in the bus and to London… I actually got back at a respectable 10 pm… Exhausted as all get out… but not 1 am or something freaky like that. All in all a delightful visit to one of my favorite cities (if crazy damp and cold this time around) as well as to somewhere new (with much nicer weather, btw)…

And the Euro is in SO much trouble-- the dollar is almost even with it right now… I almost wished I was staying in more Euro cities in May than I am… (Refresher/foreshadowing what's to come: Paris, Barcelona, Cornwall, Dublin, Edinburgh, London to catch the plane, Boston, NYC…) Only Paris, Barcelona, and Dublin are EU… Cornwall and Edinburgh are back on the pricey Pound sterling. I was excited about how strong the dollar was to the pound… I'm practically giddy about the Euro!!

And now much of Monday is gone already… And I would love nothing better than to stay in my pjs all day… BUT I forgot that I made plans with one of the other professors at CAPA to do dinner this evening… So at some point I have to get presentable… Sigh!!

Till next time… :)