Expat Snippet: Going Foodie in Brugges, Belgium

The "Venice of the North" may be even more Venice in its yummy eats than its canals, and less Venice its crowds! In our newest Expat Snippet Video, we explore the the fun of going foodie with kids. Gelato at DaVinci's is the best we've had in Europe (better than Venice), and the waffles and chocolates were, as billed, delicious. The fries weren't too different than American fries though. Click the link on the picture, below, to access the video:

While doing your food tour around Brugges, it'll be tempting to hit the main spots: Chocolate at Dumon, the fries in the central square, and waffles at Oyya, but don't sleep on the little fresh fruit markets around the side streets. The fruit was sweeter than we've ever tasted, which makes us wonder how much the GMO and pesticides really change our fruit in the U.S.

Another unsung place is Sitamandje, a sandwich shop right off of the main square. This sandwich shop is unlike any other we've been to. The sandwiches are unique and unusual. Our favorite was the curry sandwich.

The best part of all this eating in Brugges? There are plenty of calorie-burning sights to walk to throughout the city.








We had a rental car in Brugges, but didn't use it within the city, since it's mostly closed to vehicles and isn't convenient even if you have one. In fact, we highly recommend staying at the Ibis Brugges Centrum, which is right next door to the main train station and is a 10 minute walk to the main center.   It's extremely convenient and the value for your dollar is incredible. The rooms may be small, but they're clean and inexpensive (between 40-50 Euro a night), which means you've got extra cash to enjoy the food!

Link to the Expat Snippet

Back in the Saddle: The Hotel Carrousel

Six months ago, we returned from our expatriate life to everyday life back in the U.S. Thanks to some great study opportunities, we're back in Europe, this time based in Spain. This time, we started our tour with a flight to London, a night's stay in the airport (with 4 kids, yep), and an early morning flight to Paris. From there, we rented a car at CDG and traveled around Belgium, the Netherlands and back to France and Paris.

Expatriate life in Europe can be quite hectic, especially when you spend 1-2 days each in a different country. We found that one of the hardest things was picking the right place to stay. We often use Booking.com, but even that can have some misrepresented places (as we found in northern France). This time around, we started using Ibis hotels, which are the bare minimum in staying. Most of the hotels were clean, with the exception of the Le Havre budget Ibis, but they made for fairly inexpensive stays. They made most sense because all we needed was a place to sleep and leave our luggage.

Our favorite Ibis was the Bruges Central Station Ibis. It was perfectly located to park your car and walk into the beautiful downtown area. It's next to the train station, and parking was fairly cheap (3.50 Euro a day).

Our favorite place to stay overall was in France, about 45 minutes outside of Paris at the Domaine de Crecy Golf Course and Resort. The rooms were large and beautiful, and the price was nice at about 125 Euro a night. Of course, it's a little out of the way, but makes for an enjoyable stay. It's only about 15 minutes from Disney, though.