An Easter Sunday in Brugge, Belgium

So I had one of the most unusual Easter Sundays I've ever had this year. I spent the day in Brugge, Belgium! Well more appropriately, I spent the day in an Anderson Tours Coach traveling to and from Belgium! The day started at 5am when I got up and got ready to go, then got on the coach to go to Brugge! The ride consisted of three hours to get to the coast at Dover, where I rode across the English Channel on a ferry to Calais, France. From there it was another two hours to Brugge, where I had only a short four hours to explore the city! The tour guide was born and grew up in Brugge, so she gave all of us a short tour of Brugge and directed me to the best place to get chocolate. First I tried a different European food - French Fries with mayonaise! The mayo was not the mayo I'm used to in the States - this had some spices in it and was surprisingly good!

Here's a few picutures of Brugge - or what Laura referred to as a "Dutch Venice." It had a large canal through the center of the town and reminded me very much of Venice, just with bigger streets which cars could drive through. (There are no cars on the island of Venice, at least none that I saw.)

This was once a home for nuns who worked in the nearby church in Brugge. The flowers were so pretty! The picture below is of the "Love Pond" in Brugge.

Laura and I wandered around and found a little restaurant where I had a real Belgian waffle! It was delicious - mine had chocolate and vanilla ice cream on it. We ate with two American guys that Laura made friends with - it seems she attracts attention wherever we go! I went shopping for souvenirs after that - of course mostly for my family! It's like treasure hunting to find stuff for them...anyway, here's a window of chocolate creations. Yes - that's a chocolate VW Beetle with some chocolate bunnies sitting in the seat!

After souvenir shopping, I of course had to go buy some chocolate! I went to two or three different shops and got two boxes of chocolates. They are expensive! I was only able to afford a little in comparison to what they had available, but I at least got enough for everyone in my family to try some! My time was up after that, so I sadly made my way back to the coach and made the long trip back. Somewhere in between the Belgian/French border (there is no border control because Belgium and France are friendly with each other and are both part of the European Union, so I didn't get a passport stamp) it began to snow! We stopped before we got to the ferry so that some people could use the loo, so I got out and threw an international snowball at Laura! Here's me holding French/Belgian snow! (I would show you the picture of me in the snow, but I was exhausted by this point so it's not a very flattering picture!)

Here's the French or Belgian countryside covered in a blanket of snow!

It was quite different to not be in church on Easter Sunday, but after giving it some thought, there's no other place I would think He wanted me to be. The point of Easter is to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead - giving us all new life, and life more abundantly. Well, I was simply out celebrating that NEW LIFE He gave me! It was a short trip, but quite enjoyable and I thank Him INCREDIBLY for it! Thank you God for Your gifts to me!