Normandy, Bruges, and Brussels: A Week on the Move

We've done a lot of moving in the past week. We left Paris on Wednesday and headed for Normandy. We stayed at a beautiful old monastery in Mondaye, complete with crumbling stone walls and some very charming monks. We stayed in Normandy for two nights and spent our one full day there looking at World War II sites, including the American cemetery and Omaha Beach.

We came back to Bruges on Friday and have spent most of our time here working on papers, preparing for tests, on going to museums. Yesterday we took a day trip to Brussels, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We took a tour there of the European Parliament and heard a lecture on the structure and work of the European Union. Then we had the rest of the day to explore the city, which I enjoyed because it was so busy and multicultural.

Tomorrow we're moving on to the Netherlands, where we'll be doing a five-night home stay in the Amsterdam suburb of Amersfoort. I don't expect to have internet access during that time, but I'm sure I'll have some interesting home stay experiences to report on once we get wireless again in Berlin.

St. Martin Monastery in Mondaye, Normandy

View of Bruges from the city belfry

Chamber of the European Parliament in Brussels