London to brugge via zdam

Since our last post.......we have done a lot. We left bloody expensive London and took a ferry from the coast of Harwich aboard the Flying Dutchman. Not only did it serve as our transportation, it also served as our lodeging. Aside from the sea-sickness that Nora felt, we had a dutchoven of a time and stocked up on the most amazing museli and a sorts of other foodstuffs that we could eat for many future meals to come. Took the train to Amsterdam and lugged our bags around the red light district waving at all the very friendly, half naked women in the window. We felt like we were still on zee boot the way our heads were bobbing und weaving...and it wasn´t due to the coffee shop we visited. We found a great Belgian cafe, fittingly called Cafè Belgique, where we met a Jeff, a Northwest employee who was out having a beer before having to fly back to Detroit. Thanks for the La Trappe Dubbel, Jeff.

After spending some the day in the ´Dam, and feeling woozy, we took the train to Brugge...well, that´s where our ticket was supposed to be to, but we had to get off in Bruxells. The conductors sat with us and told us restuarant to visit, beers to try and places to see (one would think they would need to work). Probably the nicest people I have ever come across in my life.

Due to time, here`s a breakdown:

Bruxells - couldn`t find any hostels that were clearly marked on the map, but toured the beautiful city and met a couple of Canadian´s (eh), Jason and Jen and with the two powerhouse countries working together we found one--booked. They found us a hotel at a hostel price, but we couldn´t find the hotel, as there was no sign - Belgians must have been drunk when it came to ordering a sign. The old man who ran the place had to come out on the street and find us...
The next day we visited manneken pis, he was dressed to the nines in a tux. Dont fret he was nude again at night. We then started the first of our many 8-12% beers of the day at Poechenellekelder, a bar which offers over 150 beers. Over all that day we sampled 9 of the finest beers the country has to offer. Only 682 to go. We were treated to a light show put to classical music in the grand place, a european square everyone should see. We tasted many chocolates too. My personal favorite was the chocolate beer, Floris Chocolat. The next morning it was off to Brugge.

Brugge. Amazing. Lots of beers, a brewery tour, belgian fries with curry catchup. We ventured down a tiny ally to find the only place in the world where you can have Garre beer. So we had a Garre at de garre in the garre. One of the coolest places ever. We can now check that of the things to do in life list. We just finished purchacing $.01 tickets to Oslo, Bremen, Frankfurt and Bratislava. We havz tons more to write but the europeqn key boqrd is jqking ,e crqwy. off to have a beer.