Big few days!!

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Sorry about the delay in updates, feels like we have been time travelling!

We finished up in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday with a 40 degree day bidding us goodbye! It was an interesting place to visit and see, but feel as though we have been there and done that now.

We left Abu Dhabi around 1:30pm and 7 hours later arrived at Heathrow. We had our first look at the London Police on the plane before we even got off. We had a guy with wandering hands on our plane during the flight. The poor woman he decided to feel up was pretty upset (understandably), so they moved him to another seat during the flight and then the police came on and escorted him off the plane when we landed. (added an extra 30 mins to our flight, but was interesting).

Wow, I don't really know how to describe Heathrow Airport, unless you have seen it, it is hard to fathom. Andrews description is Melbourne Airport looks like a Country Town Airport compared to Heathrow. I don't think we even saw how big it is, but just the amount of planes moving around at the one time, it was unreal.

Andrew and I musn't have looked too dodgy at Immigration, as they were fingerprinting all non-EU passengers, but they didn't do us, go figure! We sailed through customs and thankfully our bags were there to be picked up. Then started the adventure of catching the underground and bus (yes, a red double decker bus) to our accommodation for the night.

Gee, people talk funny in London!

Next day, it was back to the airport to catch the underground into London to Kings Cross Station. We didn't get the obligatory photo in front of the sign yet, will do that on the way back. Great thing was, that St Pancras Station was connected underground to Kings Cross Station, so we could just wheel our bags over to the Eurostar Terminal.

Eurostar was amazing! Nothing like our bumpy train rides Sarah! Smooth and so very quick! We left London at 1pm and got to Calais (coast of France) in an hour. It was awesome and would recommend to anyone.

We caught a taxi to the Ferry Terminal at Calais (where all the trucks/cars etc) get on the Ferry to go to England. The line of trucks was kilometres long. It was amazing to see. Strange also, as there were a lot of people walking along the side of the trucks, trying to get into them, to catch a ride to England. (a version of our boat people), trying to get into England.

We picked up our car, a Peugeot 5008, not the 3008 that we paid for (but am not complaining), it is beautiful. Brand New Smell, 28 klms on the clock, black. It is manual and they made a mistake and put the steering wheel on the left (so as a passenger I have to sit on the right side - very weird 😊.

Andrew did an amazing job driving us from Calais to Brugge (approx. 120klm), he picked up the driving on the right side of the road really quickly, which you would need to do when everything is doing 130 km/hr on the road around you!

So, our quick pit stop in France is over and we are now in Brugge, Belgium. Whereas, I enjoyed the experience of Abu Dhabi, but wouldn't go back. It is so different for Brugges. It's so beautiful, the streets are cobblestones (sidewalk and roads), everyone here speak English and the food is just amazing! We haven't been quiet game to try the local Flemish Stews or mussels, but we did have Cheese Croquets as appetisers last night. OMG!!!!!!!! They were delicious!!

Today, was the day you read about in the tourist guides, it was all walking around the city. Visiting and climbing the Belfort Belltower. Note to self: Next time the description of the climb you are about to do says "Significant Physical Exertion required during climb", believe it!!! The climb is 339 steps to the top on a spiral staircase, but the steps get steeper and steeper the higher you go. Thankfully, they do have breaks on the way up, where you can rest, but it is hard going.

However, the views at the top are amazing, well worth the effort and would recommend to anyone. Thankfully, the trip down is much easier. But the legs were shaking at the bottom!

Market Square is a large area, surrounded by the Belfort Tower, Restaurants and the Post Office to name a few places (am sure everyone can understand why we notice the post offices).

We visited a chocolate museum and learnt about the history of the cocoa bean, but have to admit our tour of the Fritz Museum (French fry museum) was heaps better! We got a tasting at the end and I tell you, I can understand why they say the French Fry was created in Belgium. They were amazing and the mayonnaise they put on them was yum!

Another wander and we visited a Christmas Shop (and bought a friend) and then went on a canal cruise. It was beautiful and such a different view of the city. One thing we have noticed, is that Bruges is a very dog friendly city. From the lady having dinner with her dog last night in the restaurant (he was sitting on the chair next to her) to the dog that came along on our cruise with us today. They love their dogs, they take them everywhere!

Our next stop was a suggestion we found in the Lonely Planet guide and something neither of us will forget! It took us 2 goes to find this little laneway (even though we had the map), to find a tiny local pub, which had pages and pages of different beers. It was a beautiful place and the crowd was great. Everyone was having a mid-afternoon ale (or several in the case of 2 drunk pommy guys in there). I had a blonde beer (which was enough to make me happy) and Andrew had a wheat beer and a Cherry Beer. They were all amazing and we ordered a salami that we saw hanging up to eat with it. The salami was beautiful, Andrew and I both agreed, it tasted exactly like the salamis that my dad used to make. We could have eaten much much more of it.

However, we had agreed that on the way back to the hotel, we would get a Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce - OMG!!! It just broke apart as was warm and gooey!

Yes, appears we have another holiday, where we are drinking and eating all the time!

As you can probably tell, we had an amazing day and tomorrow we are heading via Antwerp to Rotterdam for the night. Then off to Amsterdam for the weekend! Hopefully we can load some photos over the weekend.

A&A

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Comments

[Sarah]

Awesome!
Hey guys I really enjoyed reading your blog... it felt like I was there with you. I could almost taste that Belgian waffle! ...yuuummmm I'ts great to hear how much of a good time you are having. I can't wait to see some happy snaps when you guys get back. Keep sending us the blogs when you can....they are a great read. Keep safe and enjoy! Sarah