To Bruge Belgium

June 24, Friday Our time here in Fountainbleau ended up being too short. hmmmm. This may become a pattern. Our train to Bruges leaves ealier than we thought so we won,t have time to visit the inside of the chateau. Have to save something for next time. Trains have been leaving from Fountanbleau for Paris about every 20 minutes and if we catch one by 10:30, we should have plenty of time to spare for our 12:22 train to Lille. When we get to the train st@tion, we find that there is a slow down and the next train won't be until 11:30! No way that will get us to our next connection on time. Nick calls an uber. €100 but he thinks we should be able to make it but traffic is unpredictable. Waze says we will get there at 12:03. Good. Traffic is heavy. ETA is 12:07. ETA is 12:11. The driver is doing the best he can. ETA is 12:17. We're close. Traffic is stopped. Our driver says the station is 2 blocks away and we will do better on foot. We jump out. Walk as fast as we can pulling our luggage. Things are well marked but still at the last we,re not sure which track. Luckily there is someone to ask who actually knows stuff. He points and we run. We scan our tickets and run to the closest car. It isn't our car but we're on! The doors close and the train starts moving. Amazing! Luckily the rest of the trip to Bruges isn,t nearly as dramatic. Still 2 more train changes but we have time and they are smooth. A handy dandy Uber drops us at the doorstep of our next Airbnb and it is delightful, roomy and comfortable. And there is a note saying to enjoy the drinks in the fridge. A local beer! What a wonderful landing.

It's about a 10 minute walk to the market square which is the hub of the old section of town. The town is beautiful and a picture opportunity at every turn. The market square has numerous sidewalk cafes. Since we were thirsty and hungry, I think we chose the very first one we came to. We had just ordered when it started sprinkling. Even though our table was under a sun umbrella, we moved to a table next to the building and under a more substantial awning. Good thing we did as the skies opened up, the thunder rumbled and everone scurried to find shelter. Seems that Bruge is famous for the local beer and chocolate. I may just end up staying here. I say I like dark beer and a wonderful dark beer appears. We both order Belgian stew that comes with fries and a salad. The stew was wonderul and rich. The salad had a mayo/vinegar dressing that reminded me of the dressing Mother made when we had what we called Dutch Lettuce.

After being refreshed and nourished, we ambled aroud the town. The courtyard for the church of Saint Mary was quiet. I took loads of pictures. We stop at one of the many chocolate shops. After a sample, we decide tha twe need to bring a small box home with us. All the ones we chose are dark chocolate and something else. We'll see how long those last. I give it 2 days.

It looks like it is going to rain again so we stop at one of the cafes on the square that has sheltered tables for some dessert. We chose something that we think is like a hot fudge sundae but with good Begian chocolate. It turned out to be vanilla icecream with whipped cream and just a lttle bit of ordinary chocolate syrup drizzled over it. A bit of a disappointment but of course that didn't stop us from eating it. Back to our comfortable Airbnb. Sure wish we were staying here for more than 2 nights.