A couple of weeks ago, we took the boys to go see Frozen, with the intent of heading to Brugge to check out the ice festival (the theme of which centers on that movie this year). We didn’t make it to Brugge with Amy as planned, but we did finally get out there this last Saturday (the last day of the ice festival was Sunday).
We arrived about an hour after it opened for the day, and it was already pretty packed. Despite the fact that I checked for my extra battery and reminded myself that I needed to grab it after I realized it wasn’t in my purse, I failed to do so. My camera lasted for about 5 pictures, so most of my pics were taken with my phone (which doesn’t do so well in poor light, unfortunately!).
As Richard likes to remind me, the point isn’t to take pictures, but rather be there with the boys, so it worked out just fine. Vincent in particular enjoyed pointing out the characters he recognized. It’s really quite impressive, actually, just how accurate the ice sculptures look. I do wish there had been fewer people; in addition to ice princesses, castles, and other characters, there was also an ice slide. The boys were getting antsy though, so we skipped the [very] long line.
Since we had never been to Brugge together (I went once by myself for a weekend in 2007, when I was living in the Netherlands), we took the opportunity to walk around and check things out. It’s really a beautiful city — it’s very museum-esque, as in, all of the churches are well preserved, and you go go in and check them out. There’s a large tower in the center that you can climb up, but again, there was a very long line. Small children do not do well in lines, so we’ll have to go back another time, hopefully when there are fewer people.
After checking out a couple of chocolate shops, we meandered back to the train station where we parked, and headed home. After a slight hiccup involving a warning light, a tow truck, and a two hour delay, we arrived home right before the boys’ bedtime.
Highlights:
Fingerpuppet Abroad 