Arrival In Bruges

---

So I won’t lie, I had a five minute teary eyed moment as the train departed from Crewe. I waved goodbye to Mum and El at the station (and already said bye that morning to Wilson & Binx!) and thought to myself “Just what to bloody hell have you gone and signed up for, you soft cow?!”



Anyway, it took me a few minutes to tell myself to get a grip and man the f*ck up! I was also helped by a few friends giving supportive messages like – Be a nomad, not a gonad!! ……….Thanks Mark.



I arrived at London Euston and started to walk to St Pancras, cursing to myself at the London signs which were about as clear as the canals here in Bruges. I arrived at St Pancras and was thoroughly frisked and scanned by security staff, before boarding the Eurostar to Brussels - where I was informed by the French driver, Francoise, that he and his colleague Jerry (pronounced like ‘Sherry’) would do everything to ensure a smooth journey into Belgium.



I finally felt a bit more chilled, so settled myself in for a two hour (ish) journey with my iPod and earphones. The first track to play on shuffle…..’I’m just here to ride the train’….”Woo yeah, it’s a sign” I thought. Second track to play…..…..’Oh Death’……….. The bastard!



So when I came out of the tunnel into France I noticed my phone had no signal so couldn’t make any calls, text, connect to WiFi/Apps etc. I hoped it was an area of poor signal, but sadly no, my shitty iPhone strikes again! I had set up my phone with google maps, languages apps, rail planners, bus timetables ready for me to find my way around the City, and now nothing was working. Bloody. Great.



Francoise then told us that the train was running approximately 8 minutes late, which is pretty much the same amount of time I had to change onto my train from Brussels to Bruges, and I had no idea what platform the train would be on. I ran from the Eurostar with my backpack weighing literally two stone, scanned the train timetables, and ran to the first platform which mentioned ‘Brugge’. I got on the train about 20 seconds before it closed the doors and hoped to hell that it was the right one. Lucky break – It was!



I arrived at Bruges and went to the bus station. I had been told that either the number 6 or 16 bus would get me near to the Bauhaus Hostel. I had hoped to rely on google maps here – but alas! In the meantime, I contacted my Mum (“Muuuuuuummmmmm…… Helppppppp!”) to ask the phone provider to find out why it didn’t work. I got onto the number 6 bus and asked for the Bauhaus, which seemed to be ok as I got a grunt from the driver! Around the bus route though, the driver parked the bus and switched off the engine for about 10 minutes. He read some papers and sorted some money out, and for the whole time the bus load of people were practically silent. I have never known a more awkward silence! I also still have no idea why we stopped. I can only imagine it is some sort of EU working time directive in action, where the driver has to stop for a rest break every so often on penalty of death……he could’ve waited to get back to the bus station though!



After a lot of stops, the driver pulled up and shouted ‘Bauhaussssssss’ down the bus, which was my cue to leave. He also gave me some directions which didn’t sink in at all, and I had to do the British thing of thanking him very much even though I had no clue what he said. Luckily a co-commuter getting off the bus re-directed me. I must’ve looked pretty clueless.



I finally found the hostel, dropped (and kicked) my backpack and went for a nice beer in the bar. I then got a text from my mum saying she’d fixed the phone……Hurray for Mums!!



The hostel I’m staying in does free City tours, and I joined an evening ‘Legend of Bruges (Discover the Dark Side) walking tour’. It talked about all the all witch and ghost myths of the city and explained the architecture. Today I joined the day time city walking tour which went around the main sights. The buildings here are distinctive medieval, but with the type of roof tiles you see in Norfolk. The guide tells you all the history of Bruges, along with some more legends.



The guide told us a historic story today about how Maximilian of Austria decided to charge taxes to the people of Bruges, which caused riots. The people of Bruges captured Maximilian and his friend called Peter Longneck, and they killed Peter Longneck in front of Maximilian. Eventually the people of Bruges decided to release Maximilian so long as he promised not to charge taxes and not to seek vengeance on Bruges. Maximilian agreed, but broke his promise and came back to Bruges with an army who destroyed all of the town walls and left Bruges open to attack. When he left Bruges he made the people promise that they would protect the Longnecks, and Bruges kept its promise, which is why they protect all the swans (longnecks) in the city even today. Each swan born in Bruges apparently has its beak engraved with a ‘B’ and its date of birth so they can be monitored. (Very long story short!)



The guide also told us that many breweries in the City were previously closed because the roads were too small to have so many big trucks bringing in beer. The guide took us to one brewery which survived because it created a series of pipes going from the brewery under the roads to outside the city walls, so that beer can be brewed in the centre but is bottle and shipped from outside the city. Apparently the pipes are around 3 meters deep so that the peoples of Bruges don’t go digging for beer! The beer here is also strong! They have a 14% beer, and apparently won’t brew anything under 6% as it’s not worth drinking.



I have just been on a boat trip on the canals of the city, which was very pretty, and I might try to climb the bell tower today. The guide yesterday said that the bell tower leans slightly to one side……after a fat Irish man being chased by a villain jumped off it ?



I think that’s it for now…..Cologne tomorrow!

---