Hartney Weickert Travel Blog: Brugge, Ypres, Vimy, Brussels, Köln

Whew! What a whirlwind weekend! Toby decided that he needed to cross Belgium off his "places to go" list and he found a deal on a smart car so after a bit of scheming we hashed out a whirlwind tour which included some WWI sights that my parents recommended we see before returning to Canada. We loved Brugge. That is, after we managed to find our hotel, at 11:00 PM, after an hour of driving around impossible to navigate one-way streets. After that it was all good. The architecture was amazing. We really enjoyed the view from the bell tower and what is not to love about a country whose most culinary treats include frittes, chocolate, waffles, mussels and beer?! The war sites were interesting and moving. We were glad that we visited them. Brussels was ... meh. Perhaps we need to give it another try. We only spent a few hours down by the Grand Place and were overwhelmed by the touristy-ness. Köln Carnival was a neat experience. It was raining pretty hard and cold. We didn't stay long enough to see the more shocking political floats but did catch quite a bit of candy, experienced the gist of the thing and got chilled to the bone. In total, put 1600 KM on the Smart car.

Friday February 1, 2008

Driving... so much driving. (Estimated it would take us 5.5 hours to get to Brugge. Took 8.5 including one hour spent driving around downtown Brugge)