My plans of an early arrival in Beligium were changed by the flight delays due to weather in Chicago. Instead of kicking around Brussels for the morning, I headed directly out to Brugge by Intercity train. So my view of Brussels was:

Ghent was not any better:



I arrived in Brugge and found that my hotel was a block away. Walking past the New Market Square, I noticed the weather was interesting as seen in this closeup of the fountain. (Someone must have stole the Gulf Stream.)



My hotel is a ramshackaled place off the main drag, and my room look more like a converted attic or artist's garret than a hotel. The view is much better than normal, if I don't mind sitting on the floor to look out the window.



Seriously, it is a very nice place and the food is very regional: last night I had the eel stew with leeks and bacon (just for Ben). After checking into the conference, I walked around a bit to see if the street foods of frites, waffels, and chocolate had degraded at all (Nope. Still great).  Brugge was an important city in Flanders:


and it still is very much a Flemish town. I don't think I will have time to visit the battlefield this trip but I have my poppy pin on. Iwalked down to the town center - aim for the clock town:

   

Passing the Catherdal of St. Salvatore on the way. (The lerger church nearby is being reworked and the tower covered in plastic wrap).   The outside is nice here but everything inside is covered up.



The center of town still has farmer markets on Saturday and



is the site of both a monument to old heros and the town hall. It's surrounded by shops, cafes, and bars. I found the Druid's Den, an Irish pub in the basement under a Chinese resturant. When I went in to grab a beer and warm up, the only other customer was from Colleyville, Texas. <sings> "It's a small world after all."



Heading to the old section of the city,



you see why Brugge is sometimes called the Venice of the North. The city is riddled with canals like the one outside my window. I headed down to the museum past the old merchant's quarter,



Over  bridges like this one.



In the old city, I found a place I took the goddess's picture years ago when we were here:



From the bridge, looking back at where I shot from, you can see the house spans the canal. All the boats I saw this trip were covered up now.



The bridge leads to a small vineyard against the catherdral. It was getting dark and colder so I headed back to the hotel, had a croque monsieur and hot chocolate by the fire in memory of old times, then showered to get warm and crashed.

Today, I spend the morning talking to people about my poster and attending sessions. The confernece is heavily GC so I am out of my element but its interesting. (I'm typing this at lunch - sandwiches of beef americain and fresh goat cheese.) Hopefully I can get out some tonight and maybe find a chocolate store.

UPDATE 1/28/10: Corrected mistakes on what buildings were.