“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” 

- Tim Cahill

My favorite part about this trip was all the laughter and friendship.  We laughed so much (we actually woke up our neighbors at the Bed and Breakfast one day!).  The two people I traveled with were so great.  I felt like I knew Laura and Leslie pretty well before the trip but there is something about being in a foreign land with no luggage for 4 days that really opens people up!  Girls, thanks for the fun times and all the good memories!  I'll miss you while I'm gone.

Just to give you the size perspective (do you see little Laura?)

Leslie probably won't post this but I just think it is too cute!  

The oldest bridge in Bruges

Leslie took this picture while biking down the road.  What talent!

Bruges was a really beautiful, small town in Belgium.  It had a cute little town square and a belfry that would chime songs every hour or so.  There are canals that flow through the whole town.  Bruges is sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the north".  It was a nice and relaxing town to visit after being in Paris- everything closed around 6pm!

Grote Markt

The Belfry

City Hall

I have never taken a train before so I was excited to travel this way and be able to see the countryside.  

And if you notice, we FINALLY got our luggage!!

Leslie kept us entertained by singing some old school Christian songs.  I do have some on video if you'd like to see some good singing and dancing!

After all the train travel, I will say that this was the one thing that stressed me out the most on the trip. I am a bit of a planner and it can stress me out when I have things planned and then something happens to mess them up.  That happened many times with the trains.   I was grateful for my bags but they were a bit of a cumbrance moving through the stations, up and down stairs.  Once you get a little bit out of the major cities, people are less likely to speak English (even though Leslie was able to find people every time!).  We missed some trains, had to be rerouted and redirected a few times. 

Besides Leslie's singing, my favorite part of the train travels was the fact that Leslie would ask someone at every stop if that was where we were supposed to get off.  They would chuckle and say "No, that stop is still an hour away".  Good times!  We did meet some locals who would point out things on the map for us to go see.  So overall, I ended up being happy with the train travels but in the future I might try to backpack instead of carry large luggage!