Blogs from Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 16

Well, i thought i'd try and give a quick update even though we've only been gone for one day! Firstly, Belgians seem happy to re-arrange the letters on a keyboard so it's like having to learn how to type all over again! We left for Dover in the early hours yesterday morning, arriving at Nancy's at around 6.30am (thanks Dad for the lift!) and were soon on our way. Within half an hour we had to pull over on the M20 as the roofrack sounded like it may fall apart, but the problem was quickly solved and before long we got to Dover. The ferry was uneventful, a nice calm crossing coupled with the most disgusting full english breakfast ever which i'm sure is what came back to haunt me last night! Nancy undertook the challenge ... read more

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the name of this blog has a double meaning as it is also named after the recent movie namesake ‘In Bruges’ starring Colin Farrell. In the said movie he says about Bruges ‘If I'd grown up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn't, so it doesn't.’ Despite this less than glowing recommendation, I loved the town and it sits firmly at number 1 of my favourite middle sized cities/towns, in between Rome as my favourite big city and Monemvasia as my favourite little town. Leaving early Friday afternoon, Leah and I decided to go the ‘cheaper’ route and we travelled by bus from London down to Dover where we met her Mum, Julie, and caught the ferry across the Channel to ... read more

Ok, now that I'm in Munich I have some time to get this entry done finally. I'm kinda falling behind here a bit because I've been on the move pretty much constantly for the past week or so. Promise I'll get the Amsterdam and Berlin entries done soon. As for Bruges, it's a beautiful city that is stuck in the middle ages as far as appearances. Pretty much all of the buildings in the city are very old or have been rebuilt to the same original specs. It is also a very small city as it only takes about 15 minutes to walk all the way across it. I arrived here on Wed from Paris via Brussels. I took a very cool train called Thalys from Paris which was very fast and I even got an ... read more

Saturday 7th June Final packing and chat with Tim before meet the guests for breakfast, and all head down to the coach. Interesting loading the coach - not entirely sure where we’re putting everything, but it all has to fit on. The coach seats about 70+, and there’s only 23 of us now, 28 of us later so it’s all got to fit on. There’s a lot of tinned food to fit in every corner too as this is the basis of most of our meals. John has a reputation of being a bit of a genius with this food, so we’ll see! Seems like a good crowd of ‘travellers’, got everyone sat upstairs, whilst Paul & I took the table areas downstairs as we’re going to have to prepare on the move! Think ‘my’ verse ... read more

Beer....chocolate...waffles...does life really get any better than this? This is the only question one must ask when strolling the lovely cobbled streets of Bruges or the most beautiful square of Brussells. Throw into the mix the gustatory sensation of Belgian mussels and pomme frites, and the quaint, pictureque architecture and one wonders if they could ever bear to leave such a magical place? I confess, I have never fancied myself much of a beer drinker. But after a few days spent in Belgium, one totally redefines one's notion of 'beer' and develops a whole new appreciation for this wonderful blend of cider and yeast. We arrived in Belgium straight after the new year celebrations with our intent simply to herald in the first week of January with complete indulgence. This was the perfect choice of locations ... read more