Welcome to Belgium!

Belgium is not a new country for us, but it is country number 7 for Cameron.

3 countries in 3 days. Kind of reminds us of that old 1969 movie "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" where a group of American tourists do a 9 country European tour in 18 days.

We took our time leaving the nice spot by the canal in France. Had showers, which took time with three of us, and of course trying to teach a 12 year old to conserve water when he's never had to do that was a bit interesting. But it all worked out.

Nice roads in this area between France and Belgium, and Max enjoyed a leisurely drive using his cruise control most of the way. Not much to take a photo of though, and even when we crossed the border there was no sign saying "Welcome to Belgium" or similar.

We stopped for lunch on the beach road in the town of Breden. Ruth took Cameron to play in the ocean while I did some computer work. But she forgot the camera, so no photos there either!

Then we made our way to a parking lot near the stadium where it looked like we were able to stay overnight.

The approximate drive from our last two days.

I say "approximate" because I can't seem to force google maps to put the route on the ferry... it keeps putting it on the Chunnel route.

We had tickets for the Club Bruge football match. One thing Cameron really wanted to do was to attend a European Pro football game. 

Our friends Bjorn and Freya who live near here have a friend who works in HR for the Club Bruge team. She was able to get us tickets that were slightly discounted... Three €39 seats for €30 each.

The game didn't start until 6:30pm, but Cameron wanted to get there early to make sure we didn't miss anything.

Cameron, on his way to the stadium.

First stop, the club shop.

Team colors are blue and black. We had a quick look at buying him a jersey to wear, but they were €60 ($88 CAD, $65 USD) each! Scratch that idea. He ended up getting himself a scarf for €15 ($22 CAD, $16 USD)

Cameron, with his Club Bruge scarf.

No, that is not how we got to the stadium!

Still pretty empty at 5:25pm.

There were a lot of people, but they seem to remain outside where the beer and food supplies are until closer to game time at 6:30pm.

But by 6:00pm, the players were on the field getting warmed up, and people started filling the seats.

The team, warming up.

Some pregame ceremonies going on.

The club mascot.

Here come the players from the opposing team.

Really crazy fans at these games. The entertainment from the fans is almost as worthwhile as the game itself.

Club Bruges has a really loyal fan base, and among the highest attendance in the Belgian Pro League. The stadium seats 29,000 people. It wasn't sold out, but I would say there had to be 20,000 or so there.

But the opposing team fans get to sit in a small section that is separated by steel gates and netting. There used to be a lot of fist fights and general dissention between fans of opposing teams, so this is how it is now. If you want to cheer for the opposition, you had better be sitting in the right seats!

Turned out that our seats were really close to the steel gates separating us from them so it was kind of interesting to watch the goings on.

And, they are such vocal, noisy fans on both sides.

I took three different videos of things...

Football (soccer) has never been my favorite sport, and I would still rather watch a baseball game, but it was a fun experience, and Cameron enjoyed himself. The home team won 7-1 so it was a bit of a blowout, but at least there was a lot of excitement from the home team fans. To give the opposing team fans a bit of credit, they never stopped cheering as their team lost more and more hope of pulling off a win.

Today, we are going into the city of Bruges (pop 130,000) to see the sights, then to visit our friends Bjorn and Freya on the other side of Antwerp.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------