In Bruges (without Colin Farrell)

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Bruges is the perfect weekend getaway. It seems to accept the fact that it is a tacky, touristy place and embraces it. It seems that every shop in town is for tourists. So many chocolate shops, lace shops, touristy restaurants, you would be forgiven for thinking that nobody actually lives in Bruges and its only a place for tourists to visit. The city is what it is because of its brilliant canal system, in some ways much prettier than Venice, the canals appear clean and give you the best view of the brilliant gothic architecture that Bruges has to offer. We rode the canal boat for half an hour which takes you all around the small city. The ancient bridges over the canals are great, as are the cobble-stoned streets and horse and carraiges that go down them.

My day in Bruges involved getting up at 7am and going for a run around the city, past the old windmills on the north side and running the circumference of the outer canal of the city for an hour. The air was cool and the city was quiet at this time. It was a great way to start the day. From there we hit the tacky touristy shops before heading to the half-moon brewery for a typically belgian tour of the place - no bells and whistles, just the tour of how it works. We sampled a fair bit of the half-moon products over lunch outside in the sun (the half moon brewery does a pretty good lunch too). We didn't see much of the nightlife as we had an early one in preparation of our full day Flanders Fields tour.

As an Australian, a tour of Flanders fields was a must-do. The battle of Ypres was where many Australian lives were lost in World War 1 - and now having seen the battlefields, it was tough trench warfare on this very flat piece of land that stretches for miles.

Our guide was brilliantly knowledgeable and took us to all of the major memorial sites. All pretty sombre stuff. Menin gate with over 50,000 lost soldiers names is particularly moving. We went to the museum in Ypres, which was also very well done in its recreation of what trench warfare was like. Makes me glad to be part of a different generation.

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Photos

Tyne Cot Commonwealth Memorial
Nearly 12,000 buried here, with names of over 33,000 soldiers that died in these fields but were never recovered enscribed on a huge wall at the back of the memorial.

Flanders fields
This lake was created by a bomb explosion. The bomb was created using dynamite and Australian miners during the Battle of Ypres

Menin Gate
The names of 55,000 soldiers lost including 7,000 aussies on these walls