Flying the Coop “As you wander on through life, child, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut and not the hole.”

It really sucks having a travel day when you are sick.  I got slammed with a head cold out of nowhere but the only place I had to sleep was 4 hours away from Amsterdam, in Bruges.  So off I went Friday morning to the train station.  When I arrived at the hotel  in Bruges, I slept for 5 hours, woke up to get some dinner, and went back to sleep through the night for 9 hours.

Saturday morning I felt much better, but all things being equal Bruges is good place to feel lethargic.  I do not know why the hell Rick Steves loves Bruges so much.  "...Bruges is a heavyweight sightseeing destination, as well as a joy."  No, Paris is a heavyweight sightseeing destination, Rick.  The only thing interesting about Bruges is that it's an intact, well-maintained Medieval city. It didn't get bombed in WWII.  But you can walk around the town in about 2 hours and there is a very little to  specifically sightsee.  And yet there are eleventy billion tourists here, probably because Bruges was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.  So it's boring AND touristy.  Also, the RS-rec hotel I'm staying in is terrible but I've said enough.

One "must-see" place, according to the tourist brouchure, is the Begijnhof.  In the distant past, this is where religious, non-nun widows and "spinsters" (according to the explanation sign near the entrance) would live and work in "piety and service."  Now it's a regular convent.  And because the houses are private, all you can see is a park surrounded by little houses.  That's it.  This Begijnhof had the most unbeliveably extensive gift shop.  These nuns like to help people shop.

The highlight of the time in Bruges was definitely the De Halve Maan brewery tour, which had a bone dry, hilarious tour guide.  "We make 900,000 liters of beer each year ...  You know Stella Artois? It is made by a big business [InBev, which wants to buy Anheuser Busch]. They made 50,000 liters each day. (pause) They are a business; we brew beer." Tour group laughs ... You had to be there.  I was probably the only person on the tour who likes factory tours more than beer.

Also, I had some delicious and interesting handmade chocolates from the Chocolate Line shop.  One was wasabi-flavored, another Havana cigar-flavored.