Easter in Bruges

I understand that Easter isn't a competition but if it were, I'd win.
On Easter Sunday Christine and I navigated Bruges, Gent, the seaside and the countryside (or more accurately, she chauffeured me around to all those places) and we spent the day revelling in the best architecture of the past seven centuries and the best easter eggs of allllll time.

Gent city centre

Feeling right at home beside the canals in Bruges,

and more at home again by the markets.

Ughh! See how pretty Bruges is? 

If Bruges were a girl she'd be giving me serious self esteem issues 

--and probably walk for Victoria's Secret.

Me outside the gates to the Begijnhof (convent) making the unflattering ratio of cesca-neck to swan-neck painfully obvious. Yes I am wearing my Easter appropriate bunny earrings. And yes it was a conscious decision.

This is the view inside the Begijnhof which is a stunning, annexed oasis in the centre of a city that's already an oasis (oasis Inception?). Snowflakes were falling lightly over the sixteenth century white cottages and the daffodils had just started to bloom. When the church bells tolled across the courtyard to call the Sisters for the Easter mass, I actually gasped. It doesn't get much more serene than this folks.

In the late afternoon, after a fancy schmancy lunch of fresh mussels, white wine and belgian fries we headed off to the small town of Damme and the wealthy beach of Knokke-Heist.  I quickly learnt that even Belgian roads are beautiful.

(Looks like one of those stock computer desktop background photos, no?)

We kept up sustenance along the journey by snacking on the artisan chocolate bought from the Bruges boutique 'The Chocolate Line'. We got a mixed box and the winner of the day was the BACON flavour. I'm not even normally a fan of the ham but I'm salivating just thinking about that one.
Speaking of pigs, I hope the image below conveys the reason for my absolute dissolution of eating habits over the past five days.

And now for something completely different: These are  the bathing boxes on the Knokke-Heist beach. The seaside was super pretty despite the belgian weather which had the audacity to SNOW. I guess I can tick the beach/snow combo off my bucket list now? And to think I considered packing bathers...

Happy Christmas...I mean.. Easter..? 

This is what La Hulpe looked like in the mornings

Just like the snowfall, my trip seemed to be over just as soon as it had began. With the sun sinking down the cobblestone avenues I packed my bags. Because I'm so savvy I misread the time my bus left and ended up racing back into Brussels with literally one and a half minutes to spare before departure. I guess that helped burn off some of the chocolate?

So with that finally flurry the fairytale was over and it was back home to Amsterdam to tackle the next block of University and, as the great poet Eminem so deftly put it "snap back to reality".