In Bruges…

Wednesday, 10th of August. Brugge is so great! I arrived yesterday night at 10:30/11 P.M. (after 95 kilometres of cycling) and now I'm in a nice youth hostel. This town is so lovely and relaxing – just all these tourist are disturbing… I don't feel like one of them. I don't want to take a boat trip through the canals and I'm not interested in making photos. It's unbelievable how much boats are there and all of them full with people (as one can see in this photo someone else shot…)

After spending much time on the internet working on my blog while Bart was at work, it was 4 P.M. when I left Antwerp yesterday. It's funny to ask somebody: "I want to cycle to Brugge, in what direction do I have to go?" – he will meet you with disbelief. First I had to cross a river. There are several tunnels for bicyclists and pedestrians, the elevator goes 31 metres down.

In this elevator I had a conversation with a cycling retiree, who come back from a cycling tour to Portugal quite recently. I asked him for a bike path to Brugge, and he invited me to follow him, as the route I had to take was also his way home, so I had some nice companion for the next 5 kilometres. Then I cycled a bike path he had shown to me nearby the arterial highway, which meant heavy traffic noise, but this stopped after 20 kilometres, so it was nice and easy to cycle and, best of all, the most direct route. After 50 kilometres I had a cappuccino break in Zelzate. I always forget that the Belgians have their own understanding of what's a cappuccino. They also offer some creamy thing, once I had something what could have been vanilla butter (very good to eat separated!) once something that could have been egg liqueur. Until I approached Brugge with 25 kilometres left everyone I asked for the route to get sure I didn't miss something showed the same reaction: meeting someone with disbelief, complete amazement, repeating the word Brugge in different languages and pronunciation – and at least they informed me about how much kilometres Brugge is away from where I was now (and each time the mentioned a much to small number!).

After Antwerp hasn't been that good, I expected nothing from Brugge. And than it impressed me totally, because I arrived at one of the town gates, Kruispoort – and there was such a great warm light, so lovely, so calm… And – what a fortunate coincidence! – I found myself just in the youth hostel's street.

What a welcome. Some guys at the connected pup were immediately curious about my guitar, another one wanted to invite me for a glass of wine. But I first wanted to unload my stuff to the 10 persons bedroom. When I came back, the guys were gone, but I found my glass of wine on a feeder pillar. So I went with my glass along the street, and joined a nice small Turkish diner, where I had a lasagne and shortly companion, too, because it turned out, that the Turkish owner was able to speak German. He had learned it in school and worked about ten years in Ankara, where he'd practised a lot, but had never been to Germany. He invited me for another glass of wine, we had nice talk, he complimented my eyes, then tried to hold my hand, so I had to made plain to him, this was to much, and we went on with talking. We hugged for good bye, and he once again tried to made it a closer hug, I eluded from, but altogether it was e very nice, interesting, strange night. I had a very late shower and some very good sleep.

Hobbes has said, he no longer wants to travel inside a bag, and he's a big tiger, so today we visit town together. We greet Klaus, Nilsbär, Kleiner Bär and Henry!