Category ‘08.23 – Belgium’

One of the less endearing aspects of Bruges was the tourist carriage rides.  They come flying down the narrow roads and alleys, CLIPPITY-CLOPPETY-CLIPPITY-CLOPPETY, and you have to dive out of the way — onto sidewalks that are already crowded — to avoid being run over by a big, sweaty, smelly beast.  My advice: if you want the quaint experience of getting around the way people used to hundreds of years ago, try walking.

Eventually, we started to wonder, all these horses – and there are a LOT of these horses and carriages running around Bruges – but no horse crap.  How’s that work?  We figured they must use horse diapers.

What will they think of next?

But it turns out the answer is a clever device, a sort of crap-catcher.  They attach it to the rear of the animal and it collects the payload in a little pouch at the bottom.  Must be fun to empty that at the end of the day.

Still, a clever invention.  Unlike a horse diaper, it’s hard to spot.

We spent one night and most of two days in Bruges, Belgium.  Unfortunately, we chose the WRONG time to go – it was a Saturday and Sunday and completely overrun with tourists.  The main streets were packed and it just wasn’t very pleasant.  However, we found the town totally adorable, and just one or two streets off the main drag was empty and completely charming.  (more…)