Brugge

As I'm slowly clawing my way back to the land of the living, I thought I'd tell you guys about the rest of my trip.

After Christmas we drove down to Dover to take the ferry across the channel. We didn't spend very long in Dover, but I can see why the white cliffs are so famous. They're very striking. It was good to be on a ship again. I stayed out on the deck while we pulled away, and it was nice to feel the rumble of the engines under my feet and watch the water churn. Since the ferry has a flat keel, you could even feel the movement of the water. Although not everyone enjoyed that as much as I did. It was a little rough going over to France, we even got some spray on the observation deck windows.


The ferry took us to Dunkirk, France. Then we drove to Brugge, an awesome little Flemish town in the north of Belgium. You go to Brugge to go shopping. They're famous for chocolate, lace and diamonds.




I bought lace and chocolate.

They also love Christams. There were markets everywhere, and I got some good stuff. It was also freezing there. The canals and fountains were all frozen over. After shopping my friends went ice skating in the main square, while I held the fragile things and enjoyed the simple pleasure of watching other people turf it.


The next day we went to the chocolate museum, which was in this old townhouse. It was really interesting, and I learned a lot about how chocolate is made. They also had a chef who did live demonstrations, tastings, and a gallery of scupltures all made out of chocolate.



We also went to the ice gallery. It was in a warehouse that was kept at a brisk -5 C. If you do the conversion, that's about "I can't feel my face anymore" degrees Farenheit.


Inside the warehouse was this ice palace and you followed the halls to a series of rooms. In each room artists had filled it with ice scultpures and carvings. The theme was "Ice Magic" so there was Harry Potter, wizards, orcs, and all kinds of things. In the center, there was this beautiful statue of a dancing lady surrounded by lights. It was awesome.









Then we went back to England, and you know, I'm the kind of traveler that if the host country is doing something, then I do it too.

If they say "Happy Christmas" I say "Happy Christmas." If they eat figgy pudding, I eat figgy pudding. And if there's a nasty flu virus sweeping the country and overflowing the hospitals, then I'm going to catch it too.

So I spent most of second week being really sick. My hosts said I looked like Frodo after he'd been stabbed by the ringwraiths. The head cold cause an ear infection, which then burst my ear drum. A doctor in the ward was nice enough to come over and give me a blessing and an examination.

The good news was: I could fly with a broken ear drum.
The bad news was: I had to fly with a broken ear drum.

NOT FUN.

Once I got home I went to the hospital near my house, so now I have meds and pain killers. Hopefully the infection will clear up soon, and I can get back to work. The ear drum itself will heal in about 4 weeks.