Brugge

Monday through Friday was all work and no play. Fortunately, I made up for it on the weekends.

Friday night, I went to my family's friends Ed and Bonnie's house for dinner. I have known them my entire life but haven't seen them in 6 years. They had a gorgeous apartment in the Montgomery neighborhood and am completely jealous of their place. From the huge open windows to the eclectic furniture, I was in LOVE. I only dream to have a place like that one day. It was sooo fun to catch up with them. I hope to be able to travel to all the places they have been. I'm not going to lie, they are kind of my idols.

Anyways, on Saturday I was off to Brugge. Brugge is known as the best preserved historical city in Belgium. I had a lot of fun wondering around the city. First up was a boat tour of the town. It was full of great views and helped me understand the layout of the city.

Lots of cute little houses (and my tour guide's head)



More cute houses


This is the Belfort in Markt Square. There are 396 stairs to the top of the tour and I climbed every single one of them. Even though I have been working out a lot lately, I was totally out of breath. I guess I still need to hit the gym.

View of Markt Square from the tower. Amazing!

The churches of Brugge....thats for my mom

This is my in Burg Square. Behind me is the Basillica of the Holy Blood. Because there was a Holy Day that weekend, the church had their relic out on display. This wasn't just any relic. It is the relic of Christ's blood. I even got to go up and say a prayer over it. It was a really cool experience. I don't know if I believe in relics. My fifth grade teacher was a "retired" Catholic priest and told us once that if you added up the wood from all the different churches claiming they had a relic from the cross Christ was crucified, that there would be a total of 14 crosses. Even though I don't know if I believe in the relic, I hope that prayer gets answered because I really need it to be.

Taking a break from the touring...

Other tour stops included the Memling Museum at St John's Hospital, Groeninge Museum featuring work by van Eyck and Magritte, a Bigijnhof, and a FEW shops. Last stop was the Church of Our Lady. This was an amazing church but the highlight was this statue of the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. It was the ONLY Michelangelo to ever leave Italy during Michelangelo's life.

XoXo