That brings us to Sunday

Sunday was a much colder day in Brugge and warranted a little bit of a sleep-in too. Our ambition was to head up to Holland and see if we couldn't get across to one of the islands off Holland's west coast. To start the day right, I headed out to find a bakery, hoping against Continental hope that there would one open on Sunday. To my mixed delight (shouldn't they have a day of rest too? but then what would we eat since we hadn't planned breakfast so well...) the Belgians seem to enjoy an early morning breakfast out and there were many cafes and patisseries already buzzing. I had intended to go the bakery that was in my mind from a previous trip and known to be notably better than Saturday's bakery, but I had seen a new place that I thought I would try just on the chance they were open too.

To my great delight, they were open and after gathering my thoughts and order strategy at the pastry display window going inside was like stepping into a bakery of yesteryear. Even though they are a bakery chain, their bread was fantastic and the pastries out of this world. It was the kind of place I could easily imagine incorporating into my daily routine.

After breakfast we did make it up toward Holland and though thwarted at the ferry we could take a toll road with a 6.6 kilometer tunnel under the sea to Zeeland and into the town of Middleburg. It's a lovely market town with cafes all around the square and one in particular, called Moe's, that enjoyed our custom for lunch. I had pancake with bacon and cheese, savoury pancakes are a Dutch specialty, and Scott enjoyed mussels, another regional specialty.

The scenery was lovely on the drive up and back home with lots of farm land and patchy fog* mainly on the Belgian side. We took one quick run up a dike to see the seashore which was not unlike the Gulf with a white sandy beach and lots of folks out on it enjoying the sunshine (albeit they were mainly dressed in warm black clothes from head to toe rather than in skimpy bathing suits.) On returning home, we went straight out into Brugge for Belgian waffles and even some sorbet and then had a late dinner of leftovers after getting a Belgian cultural lesson from our landlady who stopped in to read the meters.

After games and a a late evening stroll to say goodbye to Brugge by Scott and Becky, all were in bed resting up for the 6 am departure.

*Foreshadowing.