Location: Bruges, Belgium

Once we gave up listening to the history lesson and just let ourselves relax, we had a pretty good time on our tour of Bruges today. The city is full of churches, guild halls and palaces from the 13th and 14th centuries, but we’ve seen dozens of those on this trip. Chris won’t even look at churches anymore, and I stopped taking pictures of palaces a few days ago.

We were more interested in the chocolate. Our tour included a chocolate-making demonstration and a Q&A session with a master chocolatier, who explained the difference between true Belgian chocolate and the cheap imitation crap we’re all used to buying. It was actually pretty interesting, even for someone like me who doesn’t really eat the stuff.

Afterwards we had some free time, so we did a little shopping and then had some lunch on the patio of a restaurant in one of the old market squares. (This was actually a rare treat — a lot of our tours are so busy that we don’t get a chance to eat until we get back to the ship.) We just sat there enjoying the sunny weather and watching the horse-drawn carriages ferrying tourists around. Very peaceful.

Tonight we sail for Dover, and tomorrow we fly home from Heathrow. I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since we’ve seen the kids — we’re looking forward to some big welcome-home hugs.

Now to relax…