Day 9 - Amsterdam - Bruges - Mont Saint Michel

We awoke in Amsterdam ready to see another side of the city, being kicked out at 11:00 and therefore losing the car parking space we got ready had the provided breakfast (which was more American in nature, pancakes!) and hit the city streets early. So wondering around at 9:30 am we were a little shocked to see some prostitutes still plying their trade during the day time - during the day it is obvious that the 'B' squad are out. After some pictures of city squares, monuments, trams, bicycles and canals we had run out of time and went to pick up the car. The main town square was impressive, with the old city hall and cathedral at one end, unfortunately the city hall was surrounded with scaffold. 'Cest le vie'. Ryan drove and the TomTom instantly directed us down some tiny city streets. After some very slow driving and some illegal reversing we reached the end of the road. We could see the main road which we wanted to be on but there was some pavement in betwen us and it. An executive decision was made and after some pavement driving we were where we needed to be and on our way to Bruges.

Bruges was wet. Really really wet. We took some pictures of the main square. We also did some shopping. Main tip for future trips: try and go when it's not raining. Of course as this was our only stop off in Belgium (apart from petrol stations) we went to a number of chocolate shops. After deciding that we had a long way to travel we got back in the car and started on out journey to Mount Saint-Michel.

We arrived at Mount Saint-Michel at about 10:30 to see the whole island lit up. It is an absoutely amazing sight which looked like it could be straight out of a fairytale. Something which was so far from anything we saw in America. We parked the car and walked to the walls expecting the island to be closed. We were actually able to enter the walls and take a night time walk through the tiny streets on the Island. Lit up in the evening and with very few others around, the place had a magical feel. Standing on the walls We were able to look back onto the French mainland, over the flats flooded by the high tide. The city was so quiet we were able to wonder and appreciate the wonder of such spectacular space, never had we been to a place like this without hordes of tourist being there too. Truly epic, it felt although we had travelled through time.

We set off in search of a room in the plethora of hotels near the mount and found a vacancy in the second hotel we came to. After a swift nightcap Ryan headed to bed and John followed after writing another day's worth of the blog. John was delighted to find that the hotel had some Calvados, apple brandy. Calvados its truly potent. After one of those John then ordered a local cider informing me that Normandy was famous for its apple based alcohol products. Just before surrendering to sleep we realised that apart from the first two days we had been in at least three countries every single day - We still made two contries in those days. Good times.