Day 12 is Zeebrugge, Belgium, although that's just the port. Bruges is 20 minutes away and Brussels is about 1.5 hours away, so I think most people will go to those. Since we have to be back on the ship sooner today and Bruges has plenty of stuff to see, we'll go there today instead of Brussels.
Inside.
Leaving soon.
Disembarkation instructions.
The Zeebrugge port.
A big bumper instead of just some single tires at other ports.
Many buses.
One option is to walk 30 minutes to the Zeebrugge-Dorp Train Station.
The take a train to Bruges.
That train departs every hour and takes 15 minutes.
Another option is to walk 15 minutes to the Zeebrugge Kerk tram station.
Take that tram to Blankenberge station, and then take a bus (35-minute ride) or train (again departs hourly, 15-minute ride) from there.
First we have to take a shuttle bus to the cruise terminal, which isn't right by the dock.
Although it's a very short ride.
Instead of doing all of the walking and trams and trains or buses, we could also take a shuttle for $25. That would be around double the cost of the public transport, but much easier and less walking.
And, since it looked like it might rain, that's what we did. Their buses leave every 30 minutes.
And we just made the first one.
They also return every 30 minutes.
Farmland.
Cows.
Horses.
A tractor in town.
UNESCO roundabout.
Interesting buildings.
Many boats along the river banks.
We were dropped off on a little island just south of the city center.
Many other buses were stopping here, too.
Dropping off many other tourists.
Uh oh, the tourists are walking on the bike paths.
Mural under the bridge.
More buses at the edge of Bargeplein park.
And a bathroom.
They had a little credit card reader for payment.
Something was irritating my neck. Turns out it was a laundry tag. I must have missed this one when I was removing them.
Across a bridge.
Lovers' Bridge and Gunpowder Tower to the south.
Red building to the west.
Sashuis to the north, a historic lock house which sits on the canal entrance to Minnewater, originally build around 1519 and reconstructed in the 1890s.
Us with the house.
Nice benches.
Beguinage chapel to the left (west) and Beguinage Bridge to the north.
Lots of birds.
Spreading their wings.
People crossing the bridge.
Horse Head Drinking Fountain.
A dachshund with a coat.
The chocolate stores are open.
As are the souvenir shops.
A fair number of people shopping there.
Just a couple of shops down is another one, but nobody is in there. The importance of location and being first.
Here comes a big tourist group. Let's stay ahead of them.
Horse and carriage.
A rainbow emanating from the Church of Our Lady.
Many chocolate shops along Katelijnestraat.
Very nice chocolate bars.
And smaller pieces.
With nuts and flower petals.
Filled with beer.
Sheep.
Shoes.
Another store.
Lipstick.
Ogii bought some for her coworkers, friends, family, and us.
A narrow alley.
Another tractor.
A small river.
The banners say, "This street is made for shopping."
Church of Our Lady.
The front.
The tower.
Gruuthuse Museum.
Inside the church.
Main area.
This reliquary contains a piece of arm bone from St. Anthony the Abbot (251-356).
The actual bone is pretty small.
The museum.
Ogii at the entrance.
Picking up the trash.
They just leave it in bags on the sidewalk to be picked up.
Market Square, looking north.
To the east, the Provincial Court.
To the south, the Belfry of Bruges.
To the west, Cranenburg House.
Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck monument, two heroes of Bruges who played significant roles in the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302.
Us with the belfry.
To the west.
South.
And east.
Many carriages.
Scary chocolates.
Sexy chocolates.
Waffles in chocolate.
Bruges City Hall.
Lion and bear crest.
Statues on top.
Judicial.
And Biblical.
Basilica of the Holy Blood.
Golden sculptures.
Inside.
The relic of the holy blood is behind this tabernacle.
We can't see it, but here's a picture of the phial said to contain a cloth with blood of Jesus Christ, brought to the city by Thierry of Alsace after the 12th century Second Crusade.
Huge stained glass windows.
Another.
Very detailed.
The Lovers statue.
Us with it.
There's a little frog at the bottom in the back.
Once the frog has been kissed 100,000 times, it will turn into a prince or princess who will carry your bags for you forever.
Do we actually have to physically touch it? I can carry my own bags if so.
Tompouce restaurant.
Menu, with drinks.
And dishes.
Great table.
Beer flight.
About to taste them.
Onion soup.
Vegetable soup.
A taste of Bruges special, five dishes prepared in beer.
Veal blanquette in Hoegaarden white bear, meatballs in Leffe cherry beer, mussels in Leffe blonde beer, rabbit granny-style in Brugse Zot blonde beer, and Flemish beef stew in Piedboeuf dark beer.
Apple pie for dessert.
It was all great.
Ogii ate a ton of mussels.
Swan made of slivers of white chocolate.
Torture museum.
Sculpture and church steeple.
Neat door.
Back at the bus.
More cows on the way home.
A windmill.
A train.
Back at the cruise terminal.
Our ship.
We have to take the shuttle bus to it. No line right now.
About an hour later, there were long lines to get back on from the tour buses.
There are a ton of cars at this port. I wonder where they ship them?
At 3:20pm, there was a call for one person, and we left at 3:45pm. There were a few other large ships in the area, but they weren't for passengers.
After all of those mussels at lunch, I don't think we need any more at dinner.
Some ice cream would be nice, though.
Dragon fruit sculpture.
Flowers.
There were some large waves. They were really rocking this ship and crashing over the top of its cargo.