IN BRUGES - Dream Destination Day 1

Brugges, my dream destination, how lucky can one be? Not the easiest place to get to but I'm here, safe and sound. The flight was good, seemed short since I watched 3 movies. Should have slept! In my area on the plane there was a lady headed to a conference in Brussels. There was a cute older couple headed to a river cruise from Amsterdam after spending 2days in Belgium with friends. There were two men who told me about an international summit at NATO and one of them was Belgian so he wrote down foods and restaurants to try on my day in Brussels. He warned me about the 2 days of demonstrations going on when we got there. Panic set in with this not so brave traveler with that news. He said I would be better off on the trains rather than trying to get around by car. Still wasn't too reassured!

As I got off the plane there were all kinds of men waiting, looking quite important with signs with names on them. I was so surprised since that was a strange thing to see, people greeted right at the plane since that hasn't happened for years. As I waited I listened and realized that my plane was filled with very important people from the US arriving for the summit. Everyone was being addressed as senator this and senator that. Would love to somehow see pictures of the important Americans attending, one was the man in front of me on the plane. I realized how flying is the great equalizer, no one knew what important people were with us on that flight. It was a lot to take in at one time and I went up and introduced myself to the American ambassador, wasn't that happy to meet me I must say. But he was busy trying to get our important dignitaries safely out of the airport. I than noticed thar surrounding all of the men were bodyguards, nice looking young men carefully watching everything around this group of men. Quite an interesting sight! Welcome to Belgium!

I made it to the train at the station under the airport and successfully got to the stop where I had to change trains. I managed to get my luggage off the train, none too easily I must say. Then the being alone became a problem. The screen had no trains listed going to my next stop, which would be Oostende or krokke. I asked some people sitting on a bench if any spoke English. The women stared at me but I was quite sure they did, I'm sure I wasn't to impressive hauling my suitcases off the train and then standing there in bewilderment. There was a young man who said he did and I explained my predicament to him. I had no idea where to go and couldn't get my luggage up or down steps. He was wonderful and took me to the steps and said to wait for him. What choice did I have. He was gone a bit and came back and told me he found a train for me and to follow him. I kept asking him if he really had time to help me and he insisted he did. So he took one of my suitcases and down the steep stairs we went, walked a ways through the station and then up an escalator and he had me on platform 9, where the next train left from with a stop for Bruges. I asked if he was Belgian and he told me he was Afghani. I have met very few Belgians since I arrived!

He left me at the top of the escalator and rushed back to get his train where he had been sitting calmly waiting when this old lady came bumbling, lost, off a train. I thanked him profusely for his valuable help and he was all smiles as he left. So many kind people in the world, seems like I am out to find them all! I rolled my luggage to a bench and there were 3 young men sitting there. Again I asked my standard question, "does anyone speak English" and the first young man said he did so I asked him how I would know if the next train was mine. He said it wasn't but it was his so then another young man said he was going to Bruges to change trains and he would be happy to help me. And so my friendship with Patrick began! What a delightful man he was! He has been all over the world and works for an international company. He speaks many languages and seems to be putting that ability to good use. He is from Germany and was telling me that his 2 1/2 year old son already speaks 3 languages, German, French and Flemish. Amazing! We had a delightful hour long ride, most of it next to a sweet, quiet young lady who was on her way to Germany for a few days. That was agatha and quite possibly I will be hearing from her too. I explained the new camera and my business and they thought it was great. I showed them my card I have with me to give the man at my favorite waffle place. I explained that he had made the waffle especially for me with 2 piles of whipped cream on it and although delicious, it didn't make for the best picture! Patrick said something like "so you basically flew halfway around the world to get another picture of a waffle with only one bit of whipped cream?". Yep, pretty much, I responded! Cute kid! Hope I do hear from him, great young man! Finally we reached Bruges and he had only 2 minutes to catch his next train so we said a hasty goodbye, he took my larger suitcase off the train, leftmit by the at airs and ran for his train. Another pleasant part to my journey! And the trip had barely begun!

Got to my hotel finally and was shown to my small room. It is fine, nothing special, but clean, safe and really 5 minutes walk from the main square. If you saw the movie "In Bruges" then you saw the square I am near and I love hearing the bells in the belfry ring, as they did all afternoon. I headed to the square for a quick lunch before a much needed nap. Lunch, well it was frites with 2 new toppings. I always get the tataare topping, but the Flemish man on the plane told me his favorite was Andalus so I tried it and loved it too. Then the man at the frite stand said he thought I would like the americaine sauce and it was delicious too so I had some of each. After enjoying those while sitting in the square I went back to ask directs to a supermarket and his directions were pretty funny...go down that street and turn that way and the that way and then that way and walk a long way and it is on the right. I thanked him and left and there was a lady behind me laughing. We started talking and she was an American author who lives in England now. She had a dressed up stuffed Teddy bear peeking out of her pack so I asked if she wrote children's books about the bear. No,no, she writes adult books but is part of a Teddy bear group and it is her first visit here where her bear is going to meet other bears and their people. We chatted and she gave me her card and I started laughing. Her name is Mitzi!, I thought that was great, us Mitzis are quite different from the mainstream, it seems!

Ah, but the day is not over yet! I did find the store and bought a large bottle of water and then happily crawled into bed for my much needed sleep after 24 hours awake!

Upon awakening it was getting to be dusk so I got up and headed out with my new camera, feeling quite awkward with that big thing around my neck. Walked out the door of the hotel onto the quiet little side street and right across the street I saw a lady with a huge round camera lens and remarked in true Mitzi style without thinking, my you have a big one! The lady, in a British accent, smiled and said she was not sure how to take that! She was with 3 others and we all laughed and I told her it was my first outing with my big, heavy camera and I felt so conspicuous. She crossed the street and we had a delightful conversation! Turns out they were here for the day to take pictures, they are all members of a photo club in glastonbery, England I think it was...yes, more new friends! Might visit them for a photo trip sometime.

After our visit they headed to services at Yves, I believe it is where each evening there are services for fallen soldiers of the war at Flanders. I would like to attend that sometime since my grandfather was in the area in WWi. And so we said goodbye and my first photography shoot began with my new camera. I found a lovely, colorful store that is everything sweet. They give you samples and their sweets are delicious. I left with a few of the very expensive cookies,,,and some wonderful photos! The people in the store were delightful and one of the young girls has offered to meet me tomorrow afternoon to show me around town some. She is so cute, Tanya is quitting to move to holland, for love she told me. I was talking about. How the 'in Bruges' movie was so dark compared to how I saw this beautiful place and she told me her brother was in the movie, small part, but how fun. They were telling me about how they changed things here to make the movie and had the Christmas lights up in summer. Great visit and we all exchanged emails and I headed out.

Now you may think that was enough for a day, and my feet were quite sure the day should be over, but I am in Bruges and the sun was setting so how could I stop? I walked to the canal and watched people setting up cameras on tripods. I asked what was going on and it was an adult education photography class preparing for night shots. They couldn't have been in a better place. I saw 3boys playing on some bars and asked if I could take their picture, they loved it! The boy who was11spoke quite good English and after a bit the 10 year old got brave and he decided it was safe to try his English out and he did pretty well. The 8year old was so adorable, he so badly wanted me to understand his Flemish that he spoke so slowly. I could have just hugged him because he so wanted to talk to me too. We wandered along the canal for quite a while and they wanted me to go a couple of blocks to Love Park with them, where the swans are, but by then I was in pain from so much walking so I had to tell them no. They walked towards my hotel with me until it was time to be home, their mothers had said to be back by 8 pm. What a delightful time I had with them, I love kids whatever country they are from! NOW the day MUST be over, but I haven't had dinner yet! I walked a very short distance from my hotel to a Flemish pub and had a delicious dinner of Flemish stew in a beer gravy with frites/fries. I passed on the rabbit stew and chose beef for mine. For dessert I ordered the sugar crepe. That is my favorite way to eat them ever since I saw them in etretat, France. I was quite seriously corrected by the pub owner and told it was NOT a crepe, but a Belgian pancake! I will not make that mistake again! There is quite the rivalry it seems between the Flemish and French of Belgium.

And now 24 hours had passed since I'd woken up in Washington DC and it was the end of a long, long, absolutely wonderful day!

One more note, I always spell brugges with the double g, but more often than not, it is written with a single g. I asked the Belgian man on the plane to explain that to me. Here is the explanation: the French way it is usually written is with one g and it is one syllable with a soft g. The Flemish way to spell it is with the 2g's and it is pronounced in 2 syllables with the g's being hard like in gate. Brug(gate) ga.

And that my friends is the end of my story. Back to sleep now...more to come tomorrow!