IN BRUGES - Dream Destination Day 4

The day seemed to be a bit more normal. I had breakfast early and then went to sleep. The time change happened here last night and I was up most of the night reading. After a wonderful morning nap I headed out to do some touristy things. First on the agenda was the chocolate museum. It was quite interesting starting with the beginning of the story with the incas. I took some pictures of the story and displays but decided I would just buy a book so stopped. That was a mistake, there was no book with just the basic information. I would have read and remembered more. It was really interesting to read about the way chocolate got around the world. The Spanish originally brought it to Spain and then it made it's way to France. So many details I didn't read after that.

After that I walked a few more blocks and visited the frite museum, yes it really is a museum about potatoes and how the Belgian way of fries came about. French fries are not from France. They were offered to soldiers in the war, not sure if it was WWI or WWII, but they were shared by Belgian soldiers who spoke French so that is how they ended up with the name French fries. Now I'm curious about how the French explain the French fry. That for another time, maybe a trip to France. I wandered for quite a while and decided that lunch, at 3:30 was quite overdue. I wasn't that hungry so I decided to have a waffle. I've been wanting to try one with fruit so I stopped at another waffle shop and had one with my usual caramel and had bananas with it. The waffle itself was not as good as my Lily's waffle, but it was heavenly with the bananas! I wish my place would add that choice.

And then I wandered more and ended up getting some chocolates to take home and then headed back to the hotel. I needed to put ice on my ankle, I twisted it twice, once on the uneven cobblestones and once by missing a little step in a store. Once that was better I headed out again to get pictures of the sunset. I stopped for a small order of frites with the Flemish stew on them. Then wandered to the canals to watch the sunset. Or so I thought. I walked and walked and ended up far from my hotel in a place I'd never been before. I got quite nervous and my feet hurt and I wasn't sure how I would get back to somewhere familiar so when I saw a hotel I asked the man there to call a taxi for me. Had a nice ride back to the hotel and decided I would have to miss the sunset, my feet were so tired from that long walk.

As I was walking into the hotel I remembered I'd wanted to go to the supermarket for a drink. So I turned around and headed out again to go to the close little market. On the way there I was thinking how it was just an ordinary day today...well not for long it turned out. I went In and picked up a couple things and an American man came in. He was quite friendly and we started chatting. Eventually he shared that he lives in Austin and was here to buy a hotel which just went through. I was amazed and as we talked he told me his story. He was a troubled child, abused by a stepfather and went on to be very successful in the .com industry and aol bought his creation for 100 million dollars. Can this be true, I guess I will see, but I believe it is. He went to harvard and with mark zucker just contributed millions to a special education fund. He shared stories of his life and even if it isn't all true, which I do believe it is, what an incredibly motivational man he is! I could have been talking to Anthony Robbins in person. He gave me his email address and encouraged me to do a blog on education..He certainly had a way of discovering ones passions! And so as my last day ended in Bruges I did meet an interesting person with a great story!

Tomorrow I will pack and take the challenging train trip back to Brussels and Tuesday I will head home from this relaxing and interesting visit to Bruges!

Good night from Belgium