Fine and Cold in Brugge


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Published: March 26th 2011
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So now for Brugge / Bruges / any other way you want to spell it!!

Interesting place this. Old moated city in Belgium with cobbled streets and museums and galleries laid on. The buildings are fascinating and the Dutch influence is obvious to me – and I am looking for Flemish influence – but I wouldn’t know where to start. Plenty of churches and horse drawn vehicles for the tourists but still many cars to be more of a nuisance than anything else. I am amazed that the place can exist with 3 and even 4 languages – as there are many British here at the moment.

Interestingly, the population seems to swell during the day with day trippers and they all seem to disappear during the evening. Makes it relatively easy to arrange an evening meal.

Chocolate shops and lace vendors seem to dominate – and while much of the place is authentic, you can’t help wondering just how much of the history is ‘manufactured’. Call me a cynic – I know.

Our tourism has again been based on walking the streets – some of the walks are structured to enable one to see all of the sites – and make no mistake, this is picture postcard stuff. It’s a bit chilly here today – and your correspondent was again fooled by the clear sky and the hotel heating and underdressed. You’d reckon after 64 years I would learn but ……. We are after all only 15 kms from the English Channel – and the wind was coming straight from there today.

Anyhow, the afternoon was better – or I was better prepared.

We have organised our transport and accommodation in Brussels tomorrow night (Novotel again) and that is it for this little adventure – save for the trip home. Chris is still threatening to spend the kids’ inheritance but I am happy to report that I have managed to steer her away from most of the shops.

The hawks couldn’t do the right thing by us – but Adelaide over there is always a hard task. I would’ve preferred a better start to the year but you can’t have everything.

Enough for now – enjoy the pics of Bruges – and I doubt that we will have a connection in Brussels – so that’s probably it for this excursion.

Cheers for now

Chris and Ian



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27th March 2011

I wonder why there are so many chocolate places in Belguim?????
28th March 2011

Belgium looks great
I always become jealous when I see such beautiful photos and fascinating places. The trip seems great and some of the photos of Paris reminded me of my recent trip. Your mention of "Two piece of fish" reminds me of our experience of conversation in a Paris restaurant with a waiter with almost no English and us with no French whatsoever- there plenty of gestures and hand signs! Barry O'Farrell is our new NSW Premier with swings in some seats of 36% (including Ryde!) and an average of almost 17%. He looks like gaining 69 of the 93 seats, Labor is battling to get to 20. Cheers Pete

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