Yoga Princess: Easier on Foot in Brugges

Getting to Bruges was simple. We got all the way to city center flawlessly and then took one wrong, fatal turn. We were lost in a maze of one-way, willy-nilly streets for an hour. Finally, we found our starting point a main street called Katelijnestraat, followed Mariastraat according to google maps and took our left on Sint Salvatorkoorsstraat and DEAD END. There was a posted sign with pics of walkers and bicycles. I got out of the car (the third time in an hour one of us got out to walk) to see if the hotel was around the corner, it was. wtf? All I could was laugh and tell Justin to get out and walk it to see if he could figure out how to get there. The street in front of it was one way and we knew not to keep going and make the same hour long mistake we had made earlier. Justin returns from around the corner laughing shaking his head back and forth. In my peripheral, I see a man waving to a friend. I yell at Justin to ask them and he (male) looks at me horrified. "They are locals, not tourists," I say and nod in their direction waving my map. "What language?" one asks smiling.

In English, he says, "Ahhhh yes, it's just right there, a left and a right." It's going to be tricky, but zis car will go, yes." Justin and I stare at him with open mouths and Colt is in the back seat grinning. Can we drive here? A left right here? Of course, he answers and goes on his way. Justin gets in the car and I am completely dumbfounded. I wanted a take the photo as he drove throught the 5 feet of passable sidewalk with our 4 foot and 10 inches of car. Miraculously, it only took him reversing twice and about 3 minutes. Pedestrians all waited for us without staring or cussing and even stepped out of the way. One lady even checked both sides for us and waved us through..onto the sidewalk. I'm sure there must be an easier way because some of the cars in our hotel parking lot are wider than ours and there is NO way they could have possibly fit.

As Justin put the car in gear, I reminded him of the story my dad always retells. He once saw two trucks stuck in an alley because they both thought they could make it and two old German men out in the street yelling and 50 on-lookers laughing.