Our taxi van picked us up predawn to take us to the train station for our expedition to Bruges. This side trip started with Anne’s dream of visiting Bruges after seeing the movie In Bruges. We found our way to our correct platform after appreciating our English-Speaker privilege. I need to confirm that I am getting on the right vehicle in order to have no anxiety. We had no trouble finding people who would affirm for us that we were in the right place. We repeated the same process in Antwerp and boarded the train for Bruges.

We have decided that coffee here is delicious. However the default portion size can be destressingly small. Denise did a little dance of joy when she found a large coffee as we boarded the train in Antwerp.

We arrived in Bruges and found a picturesque medieval city known for chocolate, waffles and lace. But the first thing we had to do was climb the belfry. We waited for an hour for the privilege of climbing 366 very steep, very twisty step for an incredible view.

We all made it to the top and were well rewarded.

We then tried to find an affordable lunch in a totally touristic site, and when we failed we ate like kings- Flemish stew, mussels in wine sauce and frites. Life is good. We took a canal tour to get the best view of town before taking the train back to Amsterdam.

Our final stop before getting chocolate and a waffle was to see a rare statue, a Madonna and child statue by Michael Angelo. There are few outside Italy.

We are still jet lagged but having too much fun to complain.

We arrived in Amsterdam after our 8 hour flight. We dropped off our luggage at 11 am but could only drop off our luggage before checking in at 3 pm. We spent the time wandering Vondelpark where we encountered a Picasso sculpture, our first beer on a patio and a tour around the museum square. We scoped out the area while we waited for our AirB&B to be ready.

Our “home” for the next few days is comfy and at the top of the stairs. Our kitchen/living space opened up after a steep slightly curly climb. Our bedrooms are one more floor up and the roof top patio crowns our place.

The big trip for this year is one from the bucket list. We are two weeks away from this year’s big get away. Our adventure will start with a few days in Amsterdam including a quick side trip to Bruges. I highly recommend the movie In Bruges to give you some idea of what we can expect. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/

Our second stop is a safari in Tanzania. We will be exploring Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti. We have the potential to see the great Wildebeest and Zebra migrations and hopefully some hippos, elephants, lions, leopards, jackals, giraffes and other wild animals. I am not sure how much internet access we will have while we are on the trip but I hope to post as if I were updating daily.

Our final stop will be in Cape Town for a few days before the long flight home! We will tour the city, the Cape Peninsula (including penguins),   Robben Island where Mandela was held in prison, and perhaps we will end up at a vineyard or two.

Stay with me for photos and tales from the journey.