What an afternoon! We decided to go to Bruges, Belgium from Brussels this morning, making our way toward Amsterdam this evening.
Not really knowing what awaited us in Bruges, we came in to town with a vague idea of what we would do there. A beautiful ride in and a nice walk to Old Town brought is to a place of ancient (to us) canals and building. The only thing here I knew I wanted to see was Huisbrouwerij de Halve Maan, a brewery in old town. Everything else was by the seat of the pants.
So, we saw the cathedral, wandered down random streets, had some waffles (Belgian of course) and took a canal boat tour. We then hit up the brewery on our way to visit the canal park prior to our departure. Since we’ve been to a number of breweries in our life, we skipped the tour and went straight to the beer. And wonderful beer it was.
Even better than the beer? We breakout the Jackalopes for a photo-op and hear "what exactly is THAT?" from the table beside ours. Being two people who’ve been a bit starved for conversation (its hard to hold a long convo over beers with grunts and gestures,) we jumped right in.
Turns out we were sitting next to Steve and Aeifa (I’m sorry, I think I butchered that… Eve in Irish) from "the country" in Ireland. A serious number of Trappist beers later, well, we’re welcome in Ireland and they’ve got a place to stay, with the boys, if they make it to Arkansas.
What an amazing afternoon! We were expecting a few beers and then to the train, but life jumped out and said "hey! you need to know these people."
So, to Steve and Aeifa:
Thanks again for hanging out with us, it was an amazing afternoon. And I’m sorry for screwing up your name. I blame the beer!
And also thanks to the Jackalopes, for being excellent conversation pieces!
Justin
