The Low Countries at High Speed with Pecos

I’m guess I’m not ALWAYS right.

When I planned the short Fri-Sun jaunt to the Low Countries last weekend, I thought that we’d better take it easy. After all, along with Pecos and I (two able-bodied souls, if I say so myself) were a pregnant woman (Kate) and two retirees (Barbara and Bill). So, instead of seeing the seven sights I’d wanted to hit if it were just the pre-pregnant Kate and myself, I decided to slash our trip to only the top three sights: Bruges, Keukenhof, and a small Dutch farm. That oughta be enough, I thought.

I was wrong.
Our vivacious group ended up seeing six of the seven sights – and spending a fair amount of time seeing them, too. Well, OK. It was mostly Barbara and Bill taking pictures and Kate looking at maps.
Anyway, here they are (mostly of Pecos, of course), along with some brief thoughts:

BELGIUM
Ghent/Gent: Surprisingly attractive, complete with castle, gothic churches, canals, and hauntingly old and scary brick buildings that reminded me of a Tim Burton movie.
Bruges/Brugge: It’s hard to avoid the charm. Actually, I saw a few punk kids who were trying to look all hard. But I gotta say, it’s tough to look hard when you’re standing in front of gilded, pastel buildings, or baroque churches with well manicured churchyards surrounded by quaint, clean canals. Plus, you’d have to speak Dutch…totally un-ghetto. Anyway, here's Pecos blowing a bubble. NETHERLANDS
Kinderdijk: We missed by seven days the weekend when all the windmills in this UNESCO World Heritage Site were open to the public. Drats. We also missed the nice weather by an equal amount. But, as you can see, we still managed to enjoy our time there. Especially Pecos.
Keukenhof: The rain didn’t dampen our enjoyment of this perennially gorgeous flower garden. In fact, we actually stayed over three hours gazing at the blooms – and it wasn’t even tulip season. But, it was the last day this park was open (and the first time there for B&B), so we enjoyed it while we could. Here's Pecos, blowing some sort of bubble again. And here are a few more of Keukenhof, including a video of Pecos being very brave!

Delft: It was cold, wet, and dinner time. Although the city had canals, abbeys, and a large pedestrian square overlooked by two imposing churches, we were more taken with our traditional Dutch dessert of poffertjes. Here's a snap in front of one of the two main churches.

Alem: Speaking of traditional and Dutch, this small town in the southern part of Netherlands doesn’t see many tourists – so it’s as traditional as they get. Plus, we managed to see a traditional (read: loud) Dutch band perform while a raucous potato raffle was going on (Theme: “Everybody needs potatoes”). The only weird/bad part about this place was our hostel, which somehow was having a Groundhog Day moment and stuck in 1972. Below that is Pecos by the dyke.