We met our host at the Airbnb in Bruges promptly at the scheduled time. Okay so we were a few minutes early. He commented on his as the folks from the day before were 3 hours late! Crazy but I suppose this is just a sign of how quickly I’ve adapted to being able to use my phone while traveling in Europe. On previous trips I’ve only been able to communicate in the evenings when WiFi is available. This trip, I’ve been able to communicate with practically everyone as the need or want occurs. Super convenient!
The bnb is crazy unique. I swear it was 2 houses combined into 2 (evidence: 2 house numbers and interior windows) and I know for a fact it was run as a restaurant by our host for a while.
City tour
We grabbed some food and then met in the town square for our free walking tour of Bruges. Our tour guide had quite the command of English and pop culture. I lost count of the number of Trump jokes. Yes Europe is laughing at us. Le Sigh.
Truth be told, I didn’t listen to a lot of what he had to say as I was busy playing with my camera. I can tell you that all of the homes used to be made of wood shingles and that only 2 such homes remain. Fun trivia: they are intentionally built at an angle to protect the shingles from water damage.
Don’t catch any eels
The other story I recall is that in this town of fisherman, the catching of eels is forbidden. Now one of the fisherman was from out of town and his wife made a fantastic eel dish so he goes out to this canal (pictured below) and catches eels for their supper. No big deal except that one of the eels was the color of gold and not the traditional black of this region. He was amazed at his find and has he reached into his net to pull out the golden eel, a golden hand pulled him into the canal. Never to be seen again.
Oh! One more thing. This bar is older than America and our tour guide thinks the waitress is cute.
