Damme!

Today Michael and I got up to experience another beautiful, sunny day in Bruges.  We had planned to rent some bikes and go for a bit of a tour which - as we headed out into the countryside of Belgium without a map or a spare tube and sans helmets - was maybe somewhat foolhardy.  However, as everything turned out swimmingly, we can look back on today's events fondly, instead of cursing our lack of preparedness which resulted in flat tires and fisticuffs.
We first biked to the beautiful little town of Damme, where we checked into an info centre and actually got a map of the countryside which is, you know, kind of helpful when you're galloping off madly in all directions.  The gentleman there (after clearly viewing our physical prowess) advocated that we continue on to the town of Sluis in the Netherlands.
Back on our bikes we got, cycling along the tree lined canals and enjoying another epic day in Europe (the weather we've had has been fantastic).
It was such a perfect Flemish backdrop with trees and the pastures and the canal that I asked Michael to stop so I could take a couple of photos.  It was just so quintessential.  After I snapped a couple off Michael got this strange look on his face and became quite serious.  I was worried that he was about to tell me he had a flat or that we had to cut the ride short for some reason, but instead he asked me to marry him, and gave me a ring.
I was both surprised and then not surprised.  I was rather hoping that this might materialize on our epic trip to Europe, but I was still rather taken aback when he proposed and we both got a little emotional.
It's been a long journey over the roughly thirteen years that we have been together (and not) in various capacities.  I can't imagine spending my days with anyone else.  I love being with Michael; we travel so well together; we read each others' minds; we have the same views and the same sense of humour.  I'm very lucky to have met him in my life and today has made me so incredibly happy. 
Ring or no ring: every day that I wake up next to Michael is a good day.
Then we continued on to Sluis which was just this totally ritzy and beautiful town with a windmill in the centre of it.  We ended up having our picnic lunch on a bench on a canal before cycling through another couple of small towns, kind of getting lost, freaking out a little bit, and then making it back to the bike rental place.  Huzzah!
We were gone from noon until almost 6pm which was kind of funny because at the last minute we chose which bike rental company to go to and it just happened to be open until 8pm at night, whereas the other two we looked at closed at 5 and 6pm so that could have been another host of issues for us.
Came back, went for dinner, chilled out and will be packing up and moving on to Berlin tomorrow.  This should be interesting.  Michael lived there for ten months in his early twenties, so he's also intrigued to see what Berlin is like two decades later.  I think I am going to like it. 
I think it's going to be weird and edgy: like me.