Brugge

I am amazed.  This is so much better than I ever thought.  The canals, the squares, the fish market, the food, the chocolate.   Incredible.  We're staying about five minutes for the market square, and three from Burg.   The canals are less than a block away, with the tour boats coming by constantly.  The place were staying is owned by Alex who owns the designer furniture store across the strret and the antique furniture store downstairs.  Our furnishing are exquisite, leather chairs, huge sofa dn very comfortable beds.  the spiral stairway up to our room is zebrawood.......

Took Betty to dinner Tuesday night forr her 89th birthday at a great seafood place called Den Breydel between the burg and the market square.  Great food and a surprise sparkler for dessert.  Everyone applauded.

Next morning the local market was in the square when we arrived..............This time just food.  No socks shoes or underwear......picked up some goodies and had them for dinner.  Great sausages, local cheeses, and good bread make for a heck off a dinner. 

Haven't had any chocolate yet...............Alex told us there were only four stores that have real Belgian chocolate and most of the others only use imported products.  We'll see later when we hit them.  Julia loves the outdoor cafes.  She gets her own chair, and usually just goes to sleep after she's settled in.  However, she HATES the horses that draw the carriges through the town, usually hiding directly behind Donna, which is kind of funny.  she actually got up enough nerve today to bark at one, but when it liffted it's head for the grazing bag and looked at her, she didn't seem so brave.

Tomorrow we head fo Amsterdam, which will be the only really large city we hit until Paris.

Brittany

We arrived just in time for the fall harvest, though this time it isn't grapes!  Huge farm machines till the soil and produce truckloads of potatoes.  After the fields are cleared, locals follow and forage pails of potatoes that are left over.  Sugar beets are piled into huge mounds, the size of a house, before the scooped and hauled away.   The golden wheat is stick straight in the sun, or being thrashed in the field before becoming huge rolls for storage.  From a distance, they look like stonehenge.....
Gigantic towers turn the blades of wind tubines nearly everywhere. 

We head over to the coast to visit the sunday market.  The town is charming, with beautiful half timbered houses as we enter............................only to discover that this weekend is the annual Harley-Davidson "Sturgis" really.  More Harleys than cars, they line every sidewalk as far as the eye can see, and then some.   Not too mention loud.  And leather.  And .  And.

Looking forward to Belgium...............

So we hit turbulence over the north atlantic.............

Jamie got us to the airport in plenty of time.  Check in, check the dog in and head to the departure lounge.  Board the plane and off we go.  Betty realizes that it's worth flying in Business class the moment she sits down.  Has a little difficulty with the seatbelt, but settles in for the long haul........
the seat is controlled with a remote.  It's like a weapon in hand.  (She can't turn on the TV at home.)
So we get going and about halfway across the Atlantic we hit some turbulence.  She thinks her seat is shaking, when all of our seat are shaking the same.  the flight attendants appear too fix it...........till the next patch.......Arrive in Frankfurt, clear customs, and bussed to the flight to Paris.  Our bags come off early and out of nowhere comes Julias kennel.  she has a big smile when she's let out and we're on our way.

Rental car is going to be too small............woman at counter says 240 euros more for the larger car, b
ut she'll take 100 euros cash and look the other way.................................well duh!  Not as luxurious as I'd hoped, but a ton of room.

Two hours to the first stop in Brittany.  Kind of a remote burg, with minimal charm, but a large t hree bedroom home with a ton of space.  Good place to get over jet lag, and that's what we plan on doing.  Twelve hours the first night, and by day three we're adjusted.  Couple of day trips, which I'll post later.

Apologies for the non posting.............. our first place was supposed to have wi-fi, but didn't.  Will start tomorrow.......................Just so you know, the characters in this journey are my lovely wife Donna, my mother in law, Betty,  our havanese, Julia Child, and our guide, (GPS), Emily-----who sometimes really PISSES me off.

Stay with us and we'll start posting tomorrow.

PS----We're in Brugges now and Donna has hit it out of the park with the place we're staying, CASA MICHALEANGELO...........