Sunday was the half day trip to Gent.

We had to wait 30 minutes for the American girls to have a shower “because I am not going anywhere with out a shower” which made us a bit cranky.

As per Paris we stole cheese and crackers from breakfast to have during the day.

Six views of Gent (postcard from Tanya)

(two photos) ---Views of the City--- (two photos)

It was raining in Gent but it didn’t really matter.

The thing that bothered us was our guide had never been to Gent!!
Not exactly sure how he was meant to guide us so we wandered off on our own.

Visit to an animal market---- Ducklings (two photos)

Chicks (two photos)--------Rabbits (two photos)

There was an animal market near where the bus dropped us off so we went back and had a look.
There were baby ducks and chicks and rabbits and guinea pigs and we had a nice time playing with them all.
There were also the older animals which looked like they were ready for eating - did like that so much.

The Square

We went up towards the Square.
It wasn’t quite as nice as Brussels but was still nice.
Took a few photos in the rain and kept walking.

Volleyball Titles (two photos)---- The "Nivea Sun" sign

I could see some balls going up and down in the air so we headed in that direction.
It turned out to be the Belgian National Beach Volleyball Titles.
It was raining, there was no sun, and they were on artificial courts in the middle of a town!
It was also pretty funny to see the Nivea Sun signs everywhere and people with umbrellas.
We stopped and watched for a bit…they all looked pretty terrible actually.
As we were walking off I got smacked in the head with a ball.
It came from behind out of nowhere.

(two photos) ---Views of the City---

We basically just wandered in Gent.

"Lace Lady" - a present for Mum - and emails between Sharon and Tanya

Found a lace shop (where "Mum's Little Lady" came from)

And a chocolate shop where I had the best chocolate of the trip.
It was chocolate filled with fresh cream….so so so so good!

"I liked this building"------ "Reflections in the river"

Gent was quite pretty.

We had some chips with mayonnaise and headed back to the bus.
We were probably about 3 minutes late and we watched the bus come around a corner…it had left without us.
We were lucky that one of the girls saw us and got the driver to stop.
We were furious with the guide.
He knew that we were coming back (the idiot didn’t take a list of who was going back on the bus and who was going on to Bruges).
We wait 30 minutes for the girls to have a shower and we are 3 minutes late and he knows we are coming and leaves!!

Anyway…we got back to Brussels.

(two photos) --At the Cartoon Museum-- (two photos)

(two photos)------- Tanya "and a Baby Smurf"

We went to the Cartoon Museum in the afternoon back in Brussels.
The only problem with that was that none of the signs were in English so we had to carry a book around and flick the pages until we found the right one…in the end we didn’t bother and just looked at the pictures.
The smurf stuff was really cool and we spent ages there.

My neck was getting pretty sore by this stage - must have been the knock in the head!

After that we found the train station (the guide couldn’t tell us where it was) and checked times and brought tickets to go to Bruges the next day.

Again we ran into the American boys - we think they were following us!

"A big church in Brussels"

We went back to the square and did our tourist shopping…chocolates and lace and other touristy stuff like postcards.
I brought Brett a t-shirt which he must take a photo of him wearing it and send it to me.

We were a bit stuffed so we headed back to the hotel for a nap.

We got ready for dinner (my neck was really really sore).
We went back to a restaurant we had seen the night before.
They guy remembered us and said "thank you for coming back, have a free drink", etc etc etc.
It was hilarious.
They really really try hard.

He asked us to come back when the restaurant closed and he and his staff would show us his Brussels.
We said that we have to get up really early and he said that was no problem and he would wake us up - CHEEKY!

One of the waiters from a restaurant over the road kept calling out to us that we were so pretty.
It was just bizarre.

When we left with promises to come back (but no intention of keeping our promises) the man from the restaurant right next door tried to get us to go into his restaurant.
We said we have just had a three course meal next door and he had seen us.
He said "no no just come in for a drink on the house".
We went in and had a free beer and then left.
It was funny though because he put us at a table right outside the restaurant so the guy where we had just came from could see us.
He was quite gutted.
It must be a competition between them all.

The Jeanneken Pis (three photos)

We had been told by our guide about the statue of the little girl called the Jeanneken Pis (but he didn’t know where it was - very helpful) .
Apparently it had been put up by the restaurateurs to attract customers to the other side of the Square from the 'Boy' statue.
We asked the guy who gave us the beers if he knew where it was.
He said that he would take us.
He walked us both down the road past all the restaurants with one arm around each of us - he got lots of cat calls from staff at all the other restaurants!!
Amanda and I thought it was hilarious and this bloke was loving it.
We didn’t have to go far, just two blocks and he showed us where it was.
We could not believe how funny this statue was.
I can’t believe that is meant to be a tourist attraction.

Amanda and Tanya trying another pub in Brussels

Anyway, I had a very sore neck by this stage so we went back to the hotel for the night.

Amanda offered to give me a neck rub cause my neck was sore so there we were in our pj’s with her giving me a neck rub.
The American boys were in the room over from us and we could hear them outside our door - we cracked up laughing wondering what they would think if they could see what we were doing!