Nearing the end of our trip to Bruges, we retraced our steps to visit some places that were closed last Monday during our walk. First stop was the Jerusalem Church, quite a unique church built in 1421 by Anselmo Adornes, a wealthy merchant of Bruges. Adornes and his son made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and upon their return, built a replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that they visited in Jerusalem. It even includes a small door leading to a replica of Jesus' tomb. The church also contains a relic of a piece of the Holy Cross. The church is still owned and maintained by the Adornes family. Quite impressive for a little church in Bruges!

After visiting the church, we stopped at Café Vlissinghe, the oldest bar in Bruges, established in 1515 . It's a tiny café with a warm stove in front of the original fireplace and a friendly little dog who travels from table to table greeting all the guests. It's a cozy place where everyone sits together at long tables and you get to know your fellow diners. We enjoyed lunch and a beer and some conversation with another couple from the US. We communicated somewhat with a group of French people but not as well as our French is poor and they knew about three words of English. It was fun and the food was great as was the famous Belgian beer.

On Saturday morning we went to the Bruges market. The biggest market we've seen yet, sellers manned some very professional shops selling all sorts of foods, cooked and raw, and many shops of clothing of all types. It wasn't just a flea market, but a whole square of portable shops selling every type of clothing from socks to fine sweaters and jackets. Some of the portable shops even had dressing rooms for buyers to try before purchasing . The most impressive to us were the food sellers. At least five different shops displayed huge racks of rotating meats roasting right in front of our eyes! They roasted whole chickens, turkey breasts, beef and other meat cuts. The smells were mouth watering. Many other shops sold cold cuts, sausages, cheeses, bread and pastries, and olives. We purchased roast chicken and veggies to go with it as well as a baguette and pear cake for dessert. Delicious! After making our purchases, we settled into a sidewalk café for breakfast and coffee and some people watching. Perfect way to spend a Saturday morning in Bruges.

In two days, Oct. 28, we leave Bruges via the Eurostar train through the Chunnel crossing to London. Then we travel by train to Southampton to board the NCL Escape for a 10 day transatlantic crossing that takes us to Miami, Florida. We've been looking forward to this cruise as the Escape is a brand new ship, and we are cruising with many friends we met in the past year . We've booked a large aft balcony room overlooking the wake of the ship and are excited to see this new beautiful ship. We'll post pictures in a few weeks as we have no internet access when on ship.

Once we reach Miami on Nov. 8 we fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we begin our two week Caribbean odyssey on the Carnival Liberty and the RCCL Jewel of the Seas. We love to snorkel, and the southern Caribbean is a snorkeling heaven with beautiful reefs and loads of tropical fish to see. We always love snorkeling off St. John's during our stops in St. Thomas. This trip we're especially looking forward to snorkeling at the Buck Island Reef National Monument off the island of St Croix. I'm sure we'll also find other snorkeling spots during the two week cruise.

On Nov. 22 we arrive back in Phoenix to share the holidays with our family and friends. We look forward to seeing everyone again and catching up on your activities, too. Enjoy the pics!