Belgium was great, but getting sick was not

This last weekend we had a training holiday on Friday and then MLK day on Monday. With a four day weekend, what better to do then to travel? That was exactly what we did. We have wanted to travel to Belgium and so we decided to drive on up that way. We started on Friday and drove up to Brussels and stayed the night. We went to a restaurant in a back ally and enjoyed it. The central city is pretty with all sorts of Gothic architecture and little streets only big enough for two people to walk side-by-side. Every street is cobblestone with tall three or four story buildings lining every side. We woke up and went on a walk down the streets of the City Center bought some Chocolate, for which Belgium is known for, saw the "Manneken-Pis" which is...



Yes it is a little tacky, but who doesn't recognize it?

Once that was over, we went on to Bruges close to the North Sea for Saturday and Sunday. They use to call it the "Venice of the North" because of the canals that run through and around the city. The city was by far the best place that we visited in Belgium. It is one of the most well preserved medieval cities in Europe. This is because the city was reliant on the canals for trade and its economy. Eventually the silt blocked its port and so the cities economy dried up. During this time, Europe's industrial revolution took place all around Bruges. Other cities were tearing down old world buildings and building factories in their place. But since the city was so poor, they couldn't build any factories so all of the Gothic Medieval buildings like the Belfry in the City Market.



While the trip was great, we got home Sunday night and then Monday went down to Ramstein to do some shopping and found a Chilis. That was a nice touch of home. The only thing is that it didn’t have Julia's favorite Caribbean Chicken Salad. Then I got sick. All details aside, I was up all night and by the following morning, was so dehydrated that I had to get an IV just to re-hydrate me. It kinda sucked because it was about 4 hours long but I felt much better. In the end Julia and I really enjoyed the weekend but in the end I got sick. Oh well I guess that sometimes we have the best of both worlds.

Till next time.