Amsterdam and Bruges


 


Amsterdam and Bruges

10/9
We woke in Amsterdam. We were scheduled for a canal cruise which involved arriving at the canal on a bus. The traffic was as bad as 101 on Fri afternoon and the guide was terrible. There was total chaos as we left the bus and boarded the canal boat. The cruise was pleasant but fairly unremarkable. We came back to the ship for lunch then walked back into town taking a longer than necessary route. It was a quite warm and sunny day. Barry wanted to buy some gin and on the way to the liquor store we passed a "hemp" store where I bought some CBD candy. On our way back we stopped for a beer at a small bar and sat outside enjoying watching the world.
Random woman but just look at the bike parking lot!

Sharon, the non beer drinker took the photo
















That evening we created a Keystone cops confusion around planning the next day's excursion. I had bought tickets for an 8 hr trip to Bruges and Ghent which we decided we didn't want to do. Ira had said they were doing the tour that involved doing Bruges "on your own" so I bought tickets for that instead, then discovered that it was also an all day trip and that there was a way to go into town WITHOUT a tour. We all agreed that was preferable so I canceled the tickets I had just bought. Unfortunately, Ira, somehow missed our decision and appeared at dinner pleased as he could be because he had just bought the last 2 tickets for the Bruges tour that "someone had just canceled." After a good laugh, Patty took the tickets back and canceled the tour.

10/10

Despite all the confusion of the previous day, we managed to get a shuttle bus to the train station of the nearby town where we found 2 taxis to take the 6 us into central Bruges and arranged for an 8 passenger taxi to bring all of us back to the ship. We had a wonderful day in Bruges walking around enjoying the beautiful medieval buildings and the canals that are a bit similar to those in Amsterdam but not as numerous or extensive.
 

Store catering to women of a certain age






It was also market day so we checked out the market with the beautiful produce, cheeses, meats and, of course, waffles since we WERE in Belgium.   

We met for lunch and I chose probably the worst restaurant in Bruges for lunch where we each had our own version of bad lunch. We continued exploring the town after lunch and had an ice cream that sort of made up for the lunch. Our taxi arrived right on time for our return to the ship. One of the best days so far!

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