Bruges
We stayed in Bruges for two days. The city was great, that perfect European mix of the square, shops, and historic churches. Belgium though is known for exquisite chocolate, diverse beers, and delicious waffles, so this place will be missed. They also are very proud of their French fries, which is showcased in a French fry museum.
The majority of time we explored through the various alley ways, carrying us over the different canals.
It was so great to explore this ancient city: horse and carriages, churches standing for hundreds of years (even the airbnb house we stayed in had old, imperfect wood beams across the top), and the wide variety of diversity throughout.
I was also able to sneak off and go for a long run yesterday. Bridget stayed back with Nixon so I had to make it count. I decided to go outside of the main city and stood to a path that followed the canal. We discovered the path when we dropped Jason’s van off to take advantage of free parking outside the city walls. It was quite a beautiful run which took us outside the city and into the farmland. A small rain storm passed so slugs and snails began to show along the path. To the sides were farms and green grass that rolled on for miles. And the canal was tranquil that guided the way. I decided to go 4 miles in and 4 miles out which was an incredible long run for me these days (RTO is ten days away when we return).
I felt great, and when I returned Jason wanted to run back to his van, so what’s another mile. 9 miles and it was time for bed.
Except Nixon had other ideas. He was teething so he was waking up each hour in pain. We gave him Tylenol and then around 4am Chris came in and took over.
We then left early for Normandy the next day.
Other than last night, Nixon has been amazing. He’s such a good little trooper. He seems really happy to explore with us but he fights sleeping that much harder. One day he was a bit fussy and we tried to get him to sleep. He had only slept thirty minutes total. Despite this he still didn’t want to sleep. So we put him on our back to look for dinner, and a big smile was pasted across his face. He was back in his happy spot. He’s a funny little guy.