Brugge

We woke up early and passed on the $27.50 per person breakfast at the Marriot today and instead opted for some grocery store fare that we picked up last night. We hopped on the tram from Koren Market to Sint Peters Station for our train to Brugge. When we arrived in Brugge we rented some tandems and rolled into Market Square to check out the farmers market.

The kids found a deluxe waffle maker who cooked them right on the spot and on demand. We have found that getting a fresh, first time out of the iron, waffle is a challenge. Most vendors take an old waffle and fit it back into the iron and warm it up. They still call that fresh. While the girls like their waffles the first time they come out of the iron I don't mind the twice baked. The second pass seems to caramelize some of the sugars and makes for a crunchy chewy waffle.  

Then we had fries with lots of mayonnaise, a new favorite. 

All this food served as a good brunch carbo load for our ride out into the Belgian countryside. Most of the route was along one canal or another and through a few cute little towns. 

Just for the record, tandems are really tough to pilot with kiddos who don't really anticipate how you will lean in certain situations and also randomly lean on their own on a fairly constant basis. Here is the European installment of the dual tandem selfie without crashing. If you are wondering, helmets do not appear to be an option in Belgium. The only bucket brainers we saw were the serious road biker types. 

We stopped and had lunch in Damme where Riley was throwing down her 'biker bad' look. 

To further solidify the sisterly bond, the girls, mostly Tara, wanted to try their hands, feets, and butts on a tandem cycle. Tara, being in full control was having a great time. Where at first Riley, who could not see, steer, or brake was maybe not having as much fun. 

Pedaling along the canals was great. These lanes were almost entirely dedicated to cycling and would have been really great on my road bike. Saw tons of MAMILs and a few other hammer types out there today. The huge trees made for a great picture of Tara and Riley down the path. 

We dropped off the bikes and hobbled into town. These machines were unlike the tandems that we had in China and Vietnam. The Belgium set had a sportier geometry which made the steering a llittle more twitchy and our bottoms a little more sore. We were glad to get off our butts and back on our feet as we hobbled back into Market Square to begin Pants Quest 2015. 

I had been on a single pair of pants for about the last two weeks and had been doing some alternation between the full legged look and the man-pree. I was trying to find a sport pant like the one that died, somthing that REI would sell. That was not to be, so I settled into looking for a pair of jeans. Skinny jeans seem to be all the rage and those things would never fit me even if I agreed to wear them. I did find a pair of jeans and will not be going with this fine pair of yellow skinnys. 

We then took a walking tour and lo and behold, what should be a stop on the tour, but a budget priced chocolatier. We bought 250 grams of the finest Belgian confections and had most of it gone in the next two hours. This was a great way to cap a day filled with waffles and fries. 

We traveled back to Ghent and while the kids were getting themselves settled Patti and I went out by the canal for a drink and watched the evening settle on the city. 

Images in 2015 Brugge.