Just like the Fourth of July. Only it's the 21st, and it's Belgium.

Belgium's National Day is July 21. To learn way more than I know about it, click here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_National_Day#:~:text=Historically%2C%20National%20Day%20is%20marked,the%20King%20and%20other%20dignitaries.

All I know really is it is a very festive day in a wholesome European way. Sure there are drunk teenagers, but there are also lots of families... all ages... and singing. I'd been told there'd be singing and thought it would be some kind of moving anthems, so this is the reason I did not AVOID the main square. But the singing was like a big karoake party with Ed Sheeran type songs, the lyrics of which were on a huge screen, and on a stage were some performers dancing, and one guy seeming to lip sync. All quite odd, but very happy. It was night when, after dinner, we learned th big Biden announcement, so when we walked by the spectacle I personally was feeling a little bit more hopeful and less "oh I wish we had a happy country like they do" and more like, "maybe we can be a happy country again." I'm a Joe Biden super fan, but I do think he did the right thing and I consider him a hero. My heart was full.

But back to the beginning of the day. Fred found a sweet trio of houses to draw right on our street, and I walked 24,000 steps and saw every single corner of Brugges. I took a billion pics and had a perfect day. 

I took pics in themes:  lace curtains (lace is a big deal here), unique house numbers (some seem to be city-provided, while others get creative), door knobs (Fred's idea), weird little cubby holes I don't know what are (will find out), and inspirational messages I find posted about town.  I'm not sure how I'll share these collections. Possibly new blog posts, one for each, or one big post with "chapters."

First I had a waffle on a stick — a good way, I figured, to try one of their national foods without being too decadent. But it was, in fact, nauseatingly decadent and I inhaled it in about 90 seconds, as if the faster it disappeared, the fewer calories I'd take in.

I chose milk chocolate (I know, sacrilege in a city know for it's good chocolate) with salted caramel bits. 

So one thing I had to do in Belgium was done — eat a Belgian waffle. The others were to eat mussels, and drink the beer. I did the latter. 

Some pics I took during my 24K steps:

A MAIL slot, I think!

Well, look who I ran into!

There was a cool restaurant (closed) with a time piece theme. I could see in and there were just hundreds of old clocks of all kinds.

Here's the place — not my pics. Oddly the name of the restaurant, Bottelier, means Bottler... I would have put money on it meaning clockmaker.

Love this!  Lots of salad fixings! I think it was behind a restaurant. 

This made me happy. I feel like someone knew this was an artful way to tie this trash bag :)

Close up on this and you'll see tons of repairs and filled-in areas in the bricks. The stories it could tell.

Love a trompe-l'oeil

A Tupperware store on the main shopping drag. 

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be at a beer place Fred had been excited about, but it was closed for the holiday when we got there, so after a lot of Googling and discussing, we settled on going back to De Republiek, thinking it was a good choice since it was very untouristy. Good decision. Lovely evening in their courtyard. We asked for some cheese as an app, and this is what we got: 

Basically a Mason jar with like 75 cubes of cheese and one packet of mustard. 
Odd but tasty!

We split a veggie burger (we first thought the burger was meat, but were told it's vegetarian so we rolled with it) and some spicy drumsticks. Way too much food, which happened a lot in Belgium because it's heavy, rich, and filling.  Oh, and fries, of course, the other food I had to try. TOTALLY just like our fries. Odd. 

Dinner selfies: 

Fred getting creative again.

As I mentioned, this was the night Biden dropped out — one of those "where were you when..." moments that we'll never forget. We both kept getting dings on our phones and ignored them out of politeness. But one of us (who shall remain unnamed) caved and read the news from his friend Charlie. 

On the way home, we walked through Market Square which was like the piazza in Sienna. Just a giant open area lined with outdoor "cafés," in quotes because they are not quaint like a café might suggest, but HUGE with rows upon rows of tables, at which are seated people facing out, like they're at a theater... which they sort of are. 

Selfie at our little bridge:

Met a sweet corgi named George (Georges?) on the way home. The owner said,  Oh, God, is he peeing? He does that when he's excited... which I took as a compliment. 

And a couple of videos to give the full feeling of National Day in Belgium. 

Click to watch.

Click to watch. 

Oh, and I put this nifty thing together over latté. It's a list of the swing states, how many electoral votes each gets, and who won it in 2020, and by what margin. Then I named a prominent politician/prospective VP candidate for each state that has one. 

My verdict: Mark Kelly.