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Our last destination on our trip this past spring was Paris. We stayed a few days with Sam's cousin Paul and his girlfriend Eva, including celebrating my birthday dinner at Dans le Noir, a restaurant in the city that serves its diners in complete darkness! This is what it looked like in the dining room:
And I'm not kidding! It was completely pitch black, and your eyes do NOT adjust at all! We had to leave all of our belongings, including cell phones and watches, in lockers before entering the dining room. A blind server lead us to our table and instructed us on how to pour our water into our glasses, find our wine glasses (very carefully), and eat our meal as a blind person would. We only had one mishap when Sam accidentally spilled his wine, but they quickly cleaned it up and replaced his wine. It turned out to be a very unique and delicious experience, one that I would highly recommend if you're ever in Paris (or London, Barcelona, St. Petersburg (Russia), or even Nairobi, where they have additional restaurants).
While we were in Paris, we decided to take the advice of the older British couple we had met in Portugal and do an overnight visit to Bruges in Belgium. The city in the province of West Flanders is a few hours drive from Eva and Paul's apartment, and the drive was quite pleasant, with lots of nice scenery. We arrived in late afternoon and began our whirlwind 24 hour tour of the old city center.
Bruges is often compared to Venice, because of its canals, but it is actually much more like Amsterdam. While Paul and Eva went shopping for some kind of herb or something she was interested in finding, Sam and I got in line to do a boat tour of the canals. I know, it's a touristy thing to do, but with so little time, we figured it was a good way to see more of the city, and from angles you can only see on the water. After quite a long wait, our boat finally arrived with our captain/tour guide, who was funny and full of interesting facts about various buildings and the history of the town and its inhabitants. It was very relaxing and entertaining, as well as informative. Definitely worth a few dollars.
We even saw the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, the hotel where Colin Farrell jumped out of a window in the movie In Bruges. Recognize it?
After the boat ride, we met up with our travel companions and did some more exploring on foot.
While wandering around the residential areas, one of the handsome residents greeted us from his window.
Twenty-four hours was certainly not enough time to truly enjoy this lovely Flemish city, but that just means we will have to return one day!
I do have a few more photos of our Bruges visit, so if you'd like to take a look, go to my Flickr album.
