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PLUNK GENEALOGY -- see "Family" label on this blog and/or write Mike at mdplunk@hotmail.com

Sunday, May 25, 2008

A Day Off in Brugges, Belgium











All of the photos above are of the ancient city of Brugges, Belgium – known as the Venice of Belgium You see Mike in front of a beautiful arch and another of him by a canal and bridge. The other two are simply lovely images of the city which dates back to the ninth century. By the way, the bag Mike’s holding in the archway photo contained some of terrific goodies he brought me – Belgian chocolate and Belgian lace.

The trip to Brugges was their tourist day after having played three concerts in three different countries in three days. The James Burton Band is plenty hard-working. In Brugges, as they did with their time off in Paris, the group walked almost everywhere. And everywhere they saw people walking or riding bikes.

In Paris, bicycles were readily available as rentals. When you were through with the rented bike, you parked it in a designated bike rack where, at night, trucks drove by and retrieved them. In Belgium, the local government made white bicycles available for use with no fee. You’d see a white bike, ride it to your destination, leave it, and someone else would come along and ride it to their destination.

These exercise-friendly countries reduce the consumption of extremely expensive gasoline as well as reduce the poundage of their citizens. Mike never saw a seriously overweight person. And, despite the many wonderful meals he enjoyed while in Europe, he came home one pound lighter than when he left. I think I’ll go take a walk.

2 comments:

Willow Goldentree said...

Wow! What great pictures! I hope to someday make it to Europe.

What is it like where you live? I would love to bike around Boise, but it's too wide-spread and since no one bikes here, the cars like to push bikers off the road. :(

Last summer a woman was biking near our home, when an SUV hit her. It was like "green" against "gas" - it was very sad.

Scarlett said...

This area's not set up for biking, either. In CA, however, most larger streets had bike lanes. I had to learn to look in that lane before making right turns.