A beautiful day in Brugge!


We took a boat tour on Saturday. It's just like taking a gondola ride in Venice through the canals only this tour is in a boat with about 20 other people through the canals of Brugge. The bridge in the picture is the oldest bridge in Brugge. It was built in the 14th century and is still in its original condition. It's about 3 or 4 blocks from our house. We drive over it all the time and never knew the history behind it. Sorry there isn't more pictures of the boat tour - our camera batteries went dead after this picture - our only picture.

Our house is finally put together. Scott (he likes to refer to himself as Bob Villa now) was able to hang all of our pictures up this past weekend. It took us until now to get up enough courage to use the drill. It wasn't like drilling into just sheet rock. We (I say we, I just watched) had to drill into masonry brick and had to have the correct screws and anchors. Everything worked out well and the house is beautiful.

I had my 3rd driving lesson on Sunday. For those of you who don't know, every vehicle in Europe is a manual and I never learned to drive one. My only mode of transportation has been walking, biking, taking the train or the bus. Scott has his company car now, a 2006 Audi A4, and I decided (after much convincing) to take it for a spin (around the parking lot.) I've mastered getting into first, backing out of a parking spot, slowing down, stopping, and getting into higher gears. Scott wanted to venture out of my comfort zone (an empty parking lot) to a residential area. I pulled out onto a small side street and then I got scared. I saw a stop light coming up and a Porsche behind me. The light turned red and I stopped. But, I stopped on what Scott calls a speed bump and what I call a large hill. I haven't learned what to do on hills so I'm in panic/terror mode and all I can think about is hitting the Posche behind me. The light turns green and I push the gas pedal down, but I guess the clutch foot wasn't moving at the same rate the gas foot was going and all of a sudden the back tires start to spin and I take off squealing. (It's cool to spin your tires, right! They do that in NASCAR!) Then panic mode again there is a round-about coming up and the Porsche is still behind me...I pull into the first driveway I find and become all teary. That driving lesson was over really fast. Scott hasn't given up on me, next week's lesson - coping under a stressful situation.