Brugges, Belgium

Hello everyone,

We are in Brugges, Belgium today, where we have good access to internet. We'll try to catch up on our blogging.



In general, the cycling in the Netherlands is very nice. An extensive network of trails covers the entire country, and cyclists are treated very well everywhere. The signage is amazing. It is probably possible to cross the entire country without a map just using the special signs for cyclists. However, this makes bike traffic jams a very real problem. In fact, just the other day we spent three hours riding what usually takes us ten minutes - I think it was british cyclists riding on the wrong side that caused the problem.

Because we we arrived on a holiday, we had a bit of trouble finding a camping spot, and we had to ride around to a couple before we found a space.


This campsite was right off the beach so a beautiful sunset was only a short walk away. Less enjoyable was the campsite itself - like every campsite we have stayed at so far, it was very commercial and developped. Most of the spots were occupied by RVs and campers, and the tents were relegated to a small patch of grass near the parking lot. It seems like this is what most of camping is in Holland and Belgium. Many of the campsites have supermarkets, swimming pools, restaurants and bars attached (I guess we can't complain too much since we've been enjoying fresh croissant for breakfast almost every day).

The next day, we headed north along the coast towards Den Haag (the Hague) where we found no monument to international human rights but instead a huge boardwalk along the beach with amusement parks, fast food restaurants, and kitchy beach wear kiosks. I guess even crimes-against-humanity prosecutors have to relax somehow.

Which reminds me - one of the first things we came across in Holland was a cemetary with a number of graves from the world war, including Canadians. We couldn't help but pause for a moment to think about the very different conditions under which Canadians had visited this part of the world during the world wars.