It was a tough call – we wanted to go to Ghent; Gravenstein Castle looked amazing and we hadn’t been to a proper Gothic castle yet. But there was a lot to do. There were parts of Bruges to see, and we wanted time to process/review photos/catch up on this…
Bruges
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Day 6 ~ Biking in Bruges, the “City of Bikes”
Today, Wed 8/30, was another wonderful day in Bruges! We had another breakfast at our hotel. It had nearly the same offerings as the day before, but those offerings are so great that we were as pleased as before. This time, we sat and ate in the downstairs room, a…
Bruges
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Day 5 ~ Bruges is Brougie
Our first full day in Bruges started with breakfast at the hotel. That doesn’t sound special, but we were stoked: Over breakfast, we idly chatted about what to do. Stef had fully planned on exploring Bruges; we had just gotten here, and there was already so much to see. To…
Bruges
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Day 4 ~ A New Journey
Brussels did it again. We were going to grab a quick breakfast and hit the train station, but we started down one street and then another and then another, and before we knew it, we’d been exploring Brussels for hours. We started off by detouring to a cathedral only a…
Brussels
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Day 3 ~ A Deep Breath
We’d had adventure already, particularly the kind that forces you to reevaluate on the fly, turn broken eggs into a cake, swallow disappointments, and soldier on sleeplessly. But it was here. We were finally here. Our first stop, Brussels. We didn’t have a super-strong vision of Brussels and what we’d…
London
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Day 2 ~ Whiplash
We had really only half a day in London – so what do you do? Our motto for the day was: When life gives you Londons, make Londonade! 😉 Do you hop on a tourist bus and see as many monuments as possible? Do you pick a single neighborhood and…
London
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Day 1 ~ A plot twist before the story begins
I’m writing at the end of Friday, but the time change makes it feel like two full days have passed since my last post Thursday afternoon. Boy, what a long two days it has been! Soon after yesterday’s post, I heard a text arrive but I was too busy passing…
Portland, USA
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Day 0 ~ Crossing the Threshold
We’re leaving tonight! If all goes right, we’ll leave this evening and land “tomorrow” in Brussels in the evening, putting aside the 9 hour time change. As if on cue, today has been dominated by last minute work popping up, mostly last-minute decisions on our basement renovation. I’m happy enough…
Portland, USA
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Day -1 ~ Refusing the Call and Meeting a Mentor
Today was another big day of work, more so on my normal obligations than on this trip. My attention and time were fully occupied by some surprise bad news about the basement renovation. When Stef and I finally settled in to re-packing and prepping, it was already late evening. But…
Portland, USA
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Day -2 ~ The Call to Adventure
We’ve done our months of planning, weeks of preparation, and days of packing. Now, the departure date is just two days away! I set up this blog tonight so we’ll have place to post and a link to share.