December

I try to honor the local spelling of places I visit to the best of my ability when I put them in print. For this reason, I have the labeled the location of December's photo as Brugge as the locals spell it (and not Bruges as it's referred to in English), although I cannot begin to explain how they say it. That is also why I have the place spelled Markt and not Market, because that is what the Flemish write, and not because I didn't use spell check when creating the calendar.

Brussels was where I met my cousins for the start of their vacation visiting Belgium and the Netherlands. Their trip coincided with the end of my trip through Southern/Eastern Europe, and with a bus trip from Ljubljana to Brussels with a quick stop at a beer garden in Munich, I connected with them. From there we did a food and beer tour of Brussels before taking a day trip to Brugge. We spent the day exploring the main sights, having a few beers (including a grossly overpriced one from De Halve Maan, but that was my mistake), and trying to eat the same food as the locals. That evening, we circled back up in the Markt one last time before we left.

The Markt is the center square of the city and quite photogenic. It was also close to where we parked our car. I did not have my tripod with me on that day trip and when I arrived back at the Markt, I still had some time before everyone else got there. I wanted to take some pictures but since it was dark I knew I would have to stabilize the camera. So I found a trashcan with a flat lid and got to work. A car ended up photobombing one of my shots, and the lights gave the photo a cool look and somewhat covered up the random strangers to give more attention the buildings which I really liked.

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