Back to the Auld Sod: City Tour? Sign me up!

I, like my mother, love a tour in a new city. So I signed up for a combo walking/boat/canal tour on our first full day in Brugge. I got to the meeting point and met two guides, one of whom said, Karen Lynch? as he read from his list. I said, HOW did you guess? And he said you're the only one signed up as one... so he was not some savant. I then asked the other guy if there was a nearby ATM because I had left my "tip change" back at the house, but it was too far and too close to the start of the tour. I must've distractedly looked around the busy square for a moment because the next thing you know, I couldn't find Frank, my guy. Finally I mentioned this to the other guy and he said, "Frank left. You can be in my tour. It doesn't matter. Mine's in English too." So I was now with Norbert. I secretly wondered if Frank bailed on me because he knew I had not TIP money! (For the next four days I walked around with 10 euros in coins in case I found Norbert... but no luck. Sorry, Norbert!!! And only TWO others out of 13 tipped!)

Anyway, the tour was good! LONG! It went to 3 1/2 hours, a full hour over the estimated time. I think because one woman lost the group so we waited for her to find us, and the boats didn't line up... so we had to wait for that too. There are five canal/river boat tour companies, and each one is allowed four boats.. so there at a total of 20 boats going up and down the waterways all day.

Fred drew all day at the Friet Museum (as in fries). He sat across the street drawing in the hot sun on a street corner. The building it is housed in used to be something else special that I can't remember now.

Scenes from the tour:

The artist at work. This time I knew where he was going to be, but often I just come across him.

Mussels are a big deal here — even with their own pot.

Forgot to mention, this weekend is a huge party weekend because July 21, is Belgium Day — just like the Fourth of July. More on that later. But this belfry is a big deal in the "Market Square" and plays songs all day — with bells. I was tickled, at first, to hear "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," but soon tired of it when I realized it's one of about four in a loop and the other songs are equally odd... Bee Gees, ABBA, Donna Summers.....
Click here to hear.

This is a living space for retirees who worked for the city so they can live out their retirement with very low rent in a pleasant environment, and later this idea expanded to single mothers and children, and several others opened up. I do love these socialist aspects of some European countries.

Pretty yellow house.

In this little alley were some drawings that depicted a time when there were only a handful of bathing areas in the city. Some all women, some all men, and some co-ed. Norbert said, "Naturally, the co-ed was very popular," but that it encouraged prostitution. The church, however, looked the other way since at least people were procreating. Anyway, the deal was it was unseemly for a man to be naked in public so they were sure to wear a hat.

A free piece of chocolate from a mother/son chocolate store. Very good! But the fact that Belgium got all their cacao from colonizing African countries soured the whole chocolate thing for me. Thanks, Fred ;)

Just a taste for the madness of taking a canal tour.

This deep red "paint" was derived from ox blood, which attracted flies and stunk to high heaven.

This is iconic Brugge.

This was a fish market ALL the way up until Covid times! But it never came back. It smelled really bad in this section of town. Now it's artisans selling wares.

Norbert, our faithful guide. A lovely man.

This curved stone is volcanic rock, which I know from Italy is called tufa and it's soft and easily shaped.

For protection, the walls of this church were SUPER thick — see up to the left of the window.

Wedding couples rent big vintage American cars. Norbert said the Americans never take pictures of these but the European tourists go nuts. Once he was telling a group about the history of this particular square and these two boys said WOW! and poor Norbert thought they were enthralled with his presentation, only to find it was just a cool set of wheels.

Just a pretty sidewalk scene. Typical.

I thought this was charming until I found out it's like "Paint a Plate." You learn to make waffles while drinking beer... A gimmick.

Another picture-perfect view.

This bridge is right by our place.

And this was the MOON around midnight last night.

Before I picked up Fred, I went back to the apartment and got my laptop so I could have lunch and blog. Our host recommended a place that seemed to be under renovations, but I went inside and learned their lovely courtyard in back was in full swing. I had zucchini soup, brown bread to die for (I saved a piece for Fred), and a glass of Unwanted Tattoo beer. Easy to remember that one! Especially since my server had a tattoo.

De Republiek, my lunch place — a Jasper (AirBNB host) rec.

After lunch and more walking, I picked up Fred at the fry museum, and we went home, showered, and changed for dinner. The host gave us only one key, as I mentioned, so luckily it's a small enough city to easily get the key from each other if need be. But usually we went off for the whole day.

Dinner was at Rose Red, a hotel bar Jasper said was one of his faves, and that it was "romantic." I scouted it out (it was) and asked to reserve seats at the bar since that's what we prefer, but also because almost all the tables had "reserved" signs on them. A good sign! We arrived at 7 and had great beers and tasty food (a flatbread and shrimp corquettes) and met three guys from Leeds (near York, England) who go to Brugge together every year. The were lovely and gave us great advice for when we are in Yorkshire for Fred's next ancestry jaunt. One tip was a "private" bar that we'll be able to get into only if we tell them we were told about it, and in Halifax, England, another bar called Peaceall. We THINK. We might have gotten things confused. The guy with the thickest accent was the most talkative... Fred has clarified: The Piece Hall. And maybe it's not just a bar:

"The Piece Hall is unique- a Grade I listed Georgian masterpiece and the oldest remaining Georgian cloth hall in the world! Standing at the heart of Halifax since 1779, the huge open-air courtyard is today surrounded by unique and boutique independent shops, bars, cafes and a restaurant."