This morning the weather has taken a turn for the worse. It is a bit cooler than it has been for the last three days and a bit wet!! Not to be deterred by a bit of drizzle, we headed off to do a canal boat tour. We bought our tickets and just missed out on getting straight onto a boat. After waiting patiently for about 20 minutes with no-one else turning up, we were taken on a private canal boat tour!! A private tour is worth €207.00, but we only paid the standard price of €6.90 per ticket. How lucky is that?! Next we bought some Tia Maria that we tracked down in an 'English' bottle shop/tobacconist yesterday on our way to the Beguinage. Coffee liqueur has been really hard to find in Belgium!! After ... read more

After a delicious breakfast served to us in our room overlooking the canal, we headed into the Markt planning to climb the Belfort (the bell tower featured in the movie 'In Bruges'). The Belfort opens at 9.30am so, by 10.30am when we arrived, there was quite a queue! Since we don't have to do this today we decided to try for an earlier start tomorrow morning and, hopefully, a shorter queue. From the Markt we ventured around to the Burg where the Basilica of the Holy Blood, a Roman Catholic minor basilica, is located. The upper chapel of the church houses the venerated relic of the Holy Blood. The upper chapel was rebuilt in the Gothic style during the 16th century and renovated a number of times during the 19th century in Gothic Revival style. It ... read more

This morning's breakfast was strictly 'Continental' - pain au raisin, pain au chocolat, croissants, bread rolls, sliced bread and cheese and jam. What a carb overload!! Fortunately there was a fruit bowl so we managed to eat something that wasn't bread or pastry!! Although a little bit cool today, it is mainly sunny and fine. We headed towards the Grand Place via the local open air food market in St Catherine Place. The Church of St Catherine was shrouded in scaffolding and cloth undergoing a major cleaning and restoration so we couldn't really see what it looks like ... apart from very big! Our next stop was The Bourse, the old Brussels Stock Exchange building, which is located on Boulevard Anspach. The Brussels Stock Exchange was founded in Brussels by Napoleonic decree in 1801. This building, ... read more

After disembarking, we cleared Immigration in record time as there was no queue at all when we arrived at the booths. Maybe most of the people on our flight were in the EU queue?? Whatever the reason, we are not complaining about making it through Immigration so quickly. From Immigration to the baggage carousel just in time to haul our bags of the belt - sweet. And then it was straight out the green 'Nothing to Declare' channel as we cleared Customs. There were no Customs staff anywhere to be seen?! We then took the SkyTrain from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 to catch the train into the city. With our Frankfurt Cards already purchased we were able to proceed straight to the platform to catch our train. After checking with a local, we established ... read more

We had to wake up early again this morning as we had arranged a mini bus to collect us at about 6.20am to take us to the airport. I was a bit stressed about the timing as this is about the time that the monks come past the hotel. I didn’t want to be mucking about loading our stuff into the mini bus right when the monks started filing past! Fortunately the mini bus arrived right on time and we were all loaded and on our way before any orange robes appeared!! As we drove down the main street though, we could not believe how many tourists were sitting on the footpath with a container of rice in front of them, ready and waiting to participate in the alms giving. Personally, I find it unfathomable why ... read more