Brugge: A town from the past

It was a damp day and I decided to drive to Brugge (the famous old town in Belgium). The driving in Belgium seemed to be fun as it was crowded freeway and most of the people drive "right" way in this part of the world.

On the way, I drove into a small town and it was strikingly quiet and beautiful.





Brugge was a nice old city. It was raining a little, so I kept driving through the city and it was a nice experience.

On the way back, I exited to have pizza and missed the exit to expressway. I landed up in Brussels' peak hour but it was a nice drive through the city. Got a preview of the city centre for my planned visit next week. :)

Driving in Europe

I was looking forward to driving in Germany. As there are strict regulations on number of kilometers on rented cars in Germany, I got a new Mercedes E220 CDI.



It got some time to get used to the feature-rich interface of Merc. But I felt that Korean cars (Sonata and Avante) were better in terms of driving pleasure. Of course, it compensated with lot more luxurious interiors. :)

The day was pretty bright considering the storm which had just passed Germany. It was a nice drive on AutoBahn but didn't see anything above 200, so was a little disappointed.



Here is a video I took while driving through the Belgium towns on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Amreeka...

Here I go. First time to US. Had heard so much that I had nothing new in store. Picked up the car at airport and I was on my way. Perhaps Dallas was not the best example but I was a little disappointed after all the hype.

Anyways, it was a good time with me getting back into action with some work which I enjoyed. It was a good time spent as I caught up with many people in person who were just names and voices till then.

Here are some of very few pics which I took on the trip.



The trip to Houston was the only eventful thing. Weather had gone really bad and everyone advised me to take a flight instead of driving. But I would not have got another chance to drive long distance on this trip. And without driving, I can't call a trip complete. It turned out to be a good decision as flights got cancelled and Houston weather improved. Except for an initial skid when I braked from 80mph, I had no issues at all. I learnt from my mistake that one should never brake when its ice around even if you are above speed limit. But Korea habits will not die soon. :)

The only piece of tourism on this whole trip:



I liked the architecture. So, took a video as well. Have a look:




Food was good. Specially one that I had in Houston's Indian restaurant. And the frozen stuff I picked up from Indian stores in Dallas was great as well.

That reminds me of the frozen car in the morning. It was something which was really amazing thing. I had scene a lot of snow and ice in Korea but what was different here was that water was freezing after falling down. It happens specifically when middle part of air is hotter than earth level temperature. Defrosting the car was some experience. There was a layer of ice all around car and even door was not opening. I saw something like this in Korea on drive to Odaesan. But it was far away on trees. I guess I need to process those videos soon.