THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
OK, I’ve decided that today I’m going to put a stake in the ground and declare that Belgium is the most beautiful country in the world. However, I’ll admit that I’ve actually only been to 47 out of the 196 countries in the world. So, to qualify this opinion from my limited perspective, having actually only viewed approximately 24% of all the countries in the world, I think Belgium is the most beautiful country in the world.
I came to that conclusion on the day that we said goodbye to our beautiful rental home in Brugge…
loaded up our car…
and set off at dawn for a 3 hour drive through the magnificent Belgian countryside. We had explored Brugge for 3 magnificent days. If you missed my blog posts on Brugge you can read them by clicking here and here . Prior to that we spent time in beautiful Brussels, which you can review by clicking here. But at this point we were on our way to Amsterdam to board the Uniworld Riverboat, S.S. Antoinette for a 7 day cruise down the Rhine River.
But before leaving Brugge behind we made a pit stop at Patisserie Schaeverbeke to pick up some breakfast pastries.
This wonderful bakery is a favorite of the locals and came highly recommended.
I hadn’t yet tasted an authentic Belgian Waffle, and didn’t want to leave town without doing so. So, after waiting in a long line of locals queuing up for their daily breakfast fare I finally got myself a waffle, along with a few other sweet confections to share with Brad.
After setting the GPS in our cute little rented Mini Cooper, we followed the directions which lead us out of Brugge and into the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen.
In fact, it was so beautiful we kept thinking we were going the wrong way. We had expected that the correct route to Amsterdam would involve high speed motorways, not beautiful country lanes lined in amber colored trees, grassy fields covered in morning dew, and pretty pastures with grazing farm animals.
If I were a farm animal it is in Belgium that I’d like to live.
And if I were a bird in migration, I think I’d prefer to just settle down in Belgium full time.
Belgium even makes windmills look lovely against the rising sun.
But eventually our route did take us onto the motorway and before long we found ourselves pulling into Amsterdam, Netherlands, having left Belgium behind. However, I have not gotten my fill of Belgium and look forward to returning there soon. This small country truly is very special.
From the incredible Grand Place in Brussels…
to the waterways of Brugge and Ghent, in my humble opinion, Belgium is the most beautiful country in the world.
As we pulled into Amsterdam it was very exciting to get our first glimpse of the S.S Antoinette, the riverboat that would become our new residence as we sailed the Rhine River.
Please stay tuned, as I can’t wait to show you this really special vessel, which is one of the most innovative ships sailing Europe’s waterways. This Super Ship was designed to mimic the grandeur of the Palace of Versaille in the eighteenth-century French era of Marie Antoinette. I believe that Marie Antoinette herself would have approved of the the S.S. Antoinette, perhaps likening it to her Petit Trianon!
This was our beautiful suite onboard the ship. I’ll be sharing much more of it with you very soon.
So there you have it: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
What is your favorite country??
On a completely different note, since this weekend is Super Bowl Sunday, I thought you might also like: MY SUPER BOWL SUNDAY APPETIZER RECIPES!
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