The next day we decided to take the train to Bruges and do some sightseeing. The guy at the ticket station said it would be 30 euros cheaper to buy a stack of ten tickets that you could use for any destination instead of three individual round trip tickets, so we bought ten tickets and were on our way. The ticket collector came to check our tickets and we handed them over. He asked where we were going, and he filled out the tickets so it had the date and our destination on them. About an hour later we were in Bruges!
Hello? Is anyone home?!
The streets were eerily deserted.
We finally saw signs of life near the city center!
The first thing we did was climb the 366 steps to the top of the Belfry Tower! Prepping myself for when I go back to the Hague and eat a delicious pork gyro. I admit it. I'm in love with a sandwich.
It was an awesome view, and the bells started ringing when we got to the top!
Once we climbed back down, we made our way over to see Michelangelo's Madonna, while stopping at every chocolate shop along the way. Seriously even the streets smelled like chocolate, I was in Heaven.
My first Belgian chocolate!
What Maddie decided to get in a Belgium chocolate store....are you human?
Really decided to get detailed on the right...
After one bag of chocolate, a new purse, and a failed attempted to get the world's best hot chocolate (still mad at Sarah and Maddie for not letting me get some...I mean the sign says it's the best!)
we finally made it to the Church of Our Lady Bruges!
This is the only sculpture by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime.
After the church we went to the Half Moon brewery just in time to catch a tour!
We climbed to the top of the brewery and got a nice view of Bruges!
And then we had to climb back down...
Definitely harder than it looks. But at the end a nice cold beer was waiting for us!!! Lets be honest that's the main reason we did the tour.
Boys we met from France and Brussels. They were weird.
Straffe Hendrik Quadrupel! LOVED this beer, surprisingly more than the Brugse Zot which is the only beer actually brewed and lagered in Bruges. After a few beers we decided to walk back to catch a train home because we didn't know when the last one was leaving, and with our luck we would be sleeping on a park bench for the night because the trains had stopped running.
With a nice beer buzz, we were just about to fall asleep on the train when the ticket collector came around. I opened one eye and saw Sarah handing him our tickets so I closed my eyes again. Then he asked for our IDs. Hmm....that's weird. But we handed over our IDs, not sure what he was going to do. After a couple minutes, I realized he was writing down our information. We asked if there was a problem and he said we didn't have the date and our destination filled out on our tickets. I thought, "Oh that's it? Let me reach in my purse because I have multiple pens we can use!" So I whip out a pen and hold my hand out to write down the information. He looks at me and shakes his head and says we were supposed to fill that in before we got on the train, and now we are going to have to pay 73 euro each for riding on the train without a ticket.
You're telling me that because we didn't fill out "February 28" and "Brussels" on our tickets five minutes before, we were going to be fined 73 euros each. I don't know if it was the beer talking or the fact that that was the dumbest thing I had ever heard, but we started causing a commotion and asked for his supervisor. He got his supervisor, who we thought would tak pity on three young international students, but no, "You didn't have your ticket filled out". We were still confused why it made a difference whether it was filled out then, or five minutes before, especially because Rick Steves didn't tell me we had to fill out our tickets! Damn you Rick Steves you are supposed to be omniscient!! The ticket collector then asked if we had cash or credit cards and we naturally said no we spent it all on chocolate and beer. Duh. Then he "cut us a break" and only wrote up one ticket for 73 euro, that we could all split. Yippee. He gave us the ticket which we promptly crumpled up, and then un-crumpled so we could frame it when we got home.
You sir, are on my list. See if I ever come back to Bruges again. And no, I'm not paying your stupid ticket. So there.
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