Shopping with Anna

I stayed for the first week with Tatiana, but then family started to come in from out of town, so I stayed with her best friend, Anna. 

Belgium is incredible and I loved being there and seeing all the incredible buildings and architecture. But meeting the people is always the best part. Anna was amazing and letting me stay with her was so nice. On the day before the wedding, we went shopping.

Anna needed a cover up and shoes for the wedding. I didn't need anything -but I wanted some things. I have been looking everywhere for baby blue shoes to go with my wedding dress. Baby blue is out of fashion in the states this year, and we can't find baby blue anywhere. It's made this wedding very, very difficult.

We went to an outdoor shopping area, where of course - all the shops are in historic buildings and there are cathedrals like the one below on every other street.

This is probably my favorite picture from my entire trip. An older couple with matching dog sweaters, with the same dog. Priceless. I told Trevor this is what we are aspiring to as we age.

Anna took me into one of her favorite shoe stores - Noe. There I found and fell in love with the most beautiful baby blue heels in existence. 

Now I have gorgeous baby blue Belgian shoes for me wedding. 

Love,

Brittney

France

For Tatiana's wedding, we drove to France to get cheeses. Because apparently that is what you do, when you live so close to France. You drive there to get your cheese.

All I took pictures of was the store we went to. Not as boring as you'd think.

In France, they use the little pulley things as their shopping carts. Weird.

Have you ever seen so much fresh bread and pastries in your life? Including rows and rows of fresh French bread in France. Yummm....

Fromage = cheese. French cheese. This is ONE of the cheese isles.

Fresh cheese. See the enormous slices of Swiss in the back?

The fish was everywhere and just cut up and sitting there. It smelled SO bad (and I like fish...)

See the eels at the front? That was the reason for the picture. SO COOL. It's hard to see but there are two of them, you can see the others eye just above the head of the lower one.

Trevor said the fish above the eel look like piranhas. I can neither confirm nor deny.

Better shot of the eels.

Biggest cheese I have ever seen. The size of a large pizza. And really thick.

Love,

Brittney

Brugge

We went to Brugge!

It is a city from the Middle Ages, in remarkable condition. It is amazing. People still live there, in Middle Age houses. You have Zara and lingerie shops and restaurants, all inside Middle Age buildings. It is amazing.

Brugge is called the Venice of Belgium, as it was historically a water city.

This is a famous church, Church of Our Lady. The Madonna and Child sculpture is Michelangelo's only sculpture to have left Italy in his lifetime. 

City Center. It looks modern, right? Nope! These buildings are all from the Middle Ages!

Belgian lace is quite famous. This is a lady making it outside a shop.\

I definitely bought some Belgian lace table runners. Expensive but worth it!

We ate lunch in Brugge. The ceilings in this restaurant were incredible - again - all incredible old. 

I got a traditional Flemish dish - a Flemish stew. It was amazing!

Belgian chocolate is also world renowned, and it is absolutely amazing. Brugge is full of chocolate stores. I ate a lot of chocolate while there. Apparently there is quite a demand for erotic Belgian chocolate...