Blogs from Saint-Raphael, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 17

Brugge has such a good reviews with all who visit, so we were keen to see if it lived up to its reputation. We weren't travelling alone this time. In tow were the parents who are visiting from NZ, so the proximity to London and small size, made Brugge an ideal place to visit with the oldies. In the 11th Century, Brugge was an international commercial centre as it had direct access to the sea. Traders came from all over Europe to exchange goods such as cloth. While it's prosperity has risen and fallen throughout the ages, it is now a fully fledged tourist destination and visited by millions every year. Brugge has been beautifully preserved. The medieval streets are spotless and the canals wind perfected past lovely historical buildings. The historic city centre is a ... read more

from the moment i stepped off the plane on to mainland Europe i know i was in a better place. compared to Dublin and Ireland this is cloud 9. so we are in Brussels and need to get to Brugges but don't know how. What do we do? ask some lovely local girl at the bus desk for directions. excuse mwa", parlevois anglais?" öui"" THANK GOD. caught the bus to the train station and again had to ask how to activate our train ticket and how to get where we needed too. unfortunately our victim wasn't a lovely local but he did speak english. in Brugges the streets are all cobblestone. there is some fantastic architecture and the roofs of everything are all pointed. we got here at about 2130 hours and were told we could ... read more

Friday morning we met our Busabout tour and began the 5 hour journey to Bruges in Belgium. Our guide on the bus was really cool and made the trip go by fairly quick by telling us all sorts of tidbits about what to expect from Busabout and as we headed into Belgium he gave us a brief history of the country and of Bruges. I didn't know what to expect from Bruges as I had never heard of it until we signed up with Busabout. We arrived in Bruges at 12:30 and after a lengthy check in (there was 70 of us that got dropped off) we headed into the town to wander about for a bit. The town was super cute, made up of cobblestone street and a canal ran down through the center ... read more

Monday 2nd April I was fairly busy today preparing spreadsheets relating to the relocation of Sumitomo coming up soon. Walked down to the Thames for lunch and was surprised at how close the Millennium Bridge was. It had to be closed for a while after it first opened as it was a tad wobbly. When it opened back up it was quite different with massive reinforcements running along either side of it. I’d say it doesn’t quite have the same aesthetic appeal now but hey, at least it won’t fall down (like London Bridge). The weather was getting finer and warmer now, and it’s funny to see that the Brits will strip off at the first hints of sunshine, eager to darken their lily white complexions. Tuesday 3rd April Trivial matters of no concern to all ... read more

Andy and George just had a big fight. On ariving at the port, George suddenly realised that he'd lost his man-bag with the tickets in! Andy was absolutely incandescent with rage. He needs to get back for his interview on Monday. Aparently he needs all day Sunday to work on his portfolio. After 20 minutes of rolling around in the mud knocking lumps out of each other they were exhausted. Shockingly, I quite enjoyed it!! When I get back can I watch some WWF on the telly please? They couldn't get tickets for the ferry until Monday unless they wanted to travel via Hull, which was not on according to Andy. So after some phone calls we've left Brugges and we're headed for the Eurotunnel at Calais.... read more