In Bruges

Sunday morning after breakfast at the hotel it was back on the coach for a trip to Bruges.  Now, we had been led to believe this would be a good chunk of the day spent in Bruges.... but on the way there we were informed it would be just over 2 hours.  Great...  One of the places I really wanted to go and we have next to no time there.

Bruges is a very well preserved medieval city with lots of cobblestone streets and HUGE churches.  Hopped off the bus and immediately went to the Markt square, off of which is the City Hall and the famous Belfort. 

Decided we'd climb the 366 stairs of the Belfort first and get a birds eye view of the city.  Took a bit of time in the que because its one of the main attractions, but we finally made it up.

  Very, very amazing view.  Bruges is a beautiful expanse of a city, though I have a problem with the nickname 'Venice of the North.'  I feel like Amsterdam deserves that much more because I only saw a few canal routes through Bruges; it was mostly a walking type city.  But beautiful none-the-less.

Then we rushed to the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady).  This was probably the most gorgeous church we've seen on our travels thus far.  Plus, they have a statue by Michaelangelo, the Madonna and Child, which was pretty amazing to see.  There was a museum but we were pressed for time and wanted to get some more things in before we left.

Visited another church which was also quite impressive.  Wanted to find the Basillica of the Holy Blood, which they have a vial of Christ's blood, but couldn't remember the name exactly and our map was not helpful at all, so we missed out.

Rushed to get a bit of shopping done before rushing to get something to eat for the bus.  We had these ridiculous sandwiches which were kind of like sausage patties topped with french fries (on the sandwich).  Pretty good, only when the bus arrived we were told by the bus driver, very rudely I might add, we could not have food.  "You had 2 1/2 hours to eat!"  Yeah, because I wanted to do nothing Bruges but eat!  In fact, that's why I came on this whole trip, you jackass! :D

So we left Bruges, being told that we couldn't stay longer because we had to catch the ferry back from Calais.  However, when we got close to Calais everyone was very confused at the HOUR LONG STOP at the Beer and Wine superstore.  >:<  I was VERY pissed, because another hour in Bruges and I would have been able to see the Basillica and have a pint of Belgian beer like I wanted to!  Or, why not take us someplace to eat because almost no one was able to!!

At the UK immigration stop before the ferry, some of the obnoxious kids we were with had minor freak outs about the amount of pot they were trying to bring back with them.

.. even though they were told, DON'T BRING IT!  YOU WILL GO TO FRENCH PRISON!  Lucky for them, the tour guide just decided to scare them a bit and hid their bag with their 8 bags of weed in it, telling them that it was taken from the bus but they might get it back in London.  Serves them right...

Needless to say, International Friends is not my friend any longer.  It was a somewhat good trip, and we had fun, but there were also some infuriatingly annouying parts which will be written about in detail to the owner of the company.

Now its back in London, last week at my temp job for real this time.  Don't know what I'll be doing next, but I do know Paris is in two weeks!!! :D