Day 6: In Bruges

  Last night, we arrived in Bruges, Belgium.

  If you haven't seen the 2008 movie, "In Bruges", go watch it now.  It's one of my favorites, and one of the reasons we picked this trip.  (Disclaimer:  Nat hated the movie.)

  The whole town looks like a fairy tale.  This is the our hotel, and the view from it:

  A local tour guide took us on a walking tour this morning.

  The bear is the symbol of Bruges, and it is everywhere.  But our tour guide warned, it's not a teddy bear - it's a "mean bear."

  Earlier,  we saw the Ghent Altarpiece, that had a starring role in The Monuments Men.  The other masterpiece they tracked down in the movie was Michelangelo's Madonna of Bruges, and this is it:

    We were on our own for lunch, so Nat and I went to to a little cafe near the town square.  Nats coffee included a chocolate of an artist's palette on the side.

  I had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with pineapples on it:

 And Nat had some pasta:

  Then the group met up again to tour one of the most famous breweries in Bruges, "De Halve Maan."  It was already in operation in 1564, according to city records.

  Inga, the employee who led the tour was actually featured in the Rick Steves episode on Belguim.  She was hilarious.

  Five years ago, the brewery came up with an interesting idea of how to reduce the cost and hassle of transporting the beer to the bottler, two miles away.  It wanted to build an UNDERGROUND BEER PIPELINE.

  It recently launced a crowdfunding website to pay for it.  There are three tiers.  The cheapest, at about $250, gets you one bottle a year (on your birthday) for the rest of your life, along with a beer glass with your name etched on it.  But if you contribute about $8500, you'll get a bottle of beer EVERY DAY, for the rest of your life!  The campaign runs through the end of the year, so you if you want to get in, click here.

  At the end of the tour, we had a few glasses- at the very impressive bar there.

  Vicki, Scott, Laura, and Francisco.  Our drinking buddies for the night.

  After a somewhat off-balance walk back to the town center, we happened to catch a concert by a guy who plays the bells on the clock tower.  But it wasn't what we expected...  he had a DJ with a turntable next to him, scratching some beats!  It was awesome!