Blogs from Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 14

Travelling from the UK to the Continent overland has been a dream of ours since we first arrived in England. European friends in Australia would amaze us with tales of travelling to another country without getting on a plane but until now we hadn’t found an opportunity to do so, well not across the channel anyway. So when we found bargain Eurostar tickets available for the second May long weekend (which also happened to be a weekend when Ariana’s Mum and Dad would be visiting us), we couldn’t pass it up. Arriving at London St Pancras after a short bus journey from Nottingham we excitedly make our way through to the Eurostar security area and find our passports being stamped indicating that we have just arrived in France. We knew this trip would be quick, but ... read more

Well i’ll bet you’re all dying to know if we made the concert or not....? Well maybe not, but anyway we made it! It was pretty good, but according to Vince it wasn’t their best. After the concert we headed off to Mitcham - south side of London, so we could beat peak hour Friday morning traffic on the drive to Dover. We arrived at Dover and caught the ferry across to Calais. It was a smooth journey and then came the not so smooth journey - driving on the WRONG side of the road - well right side (which is wrong!) . Once again we needed bloody fuel. So after plugging in more service stations into the GPS and not being able to find a servo we were in another stressful situation! Luckily enough we ... read more

Bruges is a nice clean little town that you can pretty much walk through the main part in an hour or so.Every other shop is either a chocolate or a lace shop. Two things Belgium is famous for.So I went to the Church of Holy Blood and saw the piece of cloth in the glass vial that apparently has drops of Jesus blood on it when he was taken from the cross.There is a man there at the altar guarding it and you can touch the vial and say a prayer then when you are done he immediately wipes the vial off with a rag and he is wearing gloves.The church inside is really ornate and quite pretty.No photos though:( I also saw Michelangelo's Madonna and Child this piece is one of his that is not ... read more

Thursday - May 7, 2009 Our legs were a tad tired, or was it our behinds? For whatever the reason, we explored the town of Brugge in the morning. Having watched IN BRUGGE (because so many people said I should) I needed to know exactly where the Belfry was and wanted to see the stair tower where an eventful closing scene of the movie took place. The Belfry in Brugge is octagonal and rises 272 feet above the square, it was built between the 13th and 15th centuries. Inside the tower is a winding staircase thats leads up to the top - Jean and I wound our way up the 322 steps - only 70 people are allowed in the tower at a time - that made me a tad nervous -until we saw that about ... read more

My last weekend hoorah! I cannot believe that this semester has almost come to an end. It is crazy to think that I am now taking finals and have to pack up all my things. Last Thursday night was our end-of-the-semester boat cruise. It was so much fun. We had to meet at the school and take an hour long bus ride to the Marie Astrid River. Once we got on the boat everyone found a table and got ready for dinner. I explored the top deck and enjoyed the weather outside. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and in the sixties. For dinner we had chicken in a white wine and mushroom sauce with potatoes. I really enjoyed the sauce on the chicken. For dessert we had a pie with crème on the side. ... read more