Blogs from Brugge, Saint-Raphael, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 2

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 ... read more

Geo: 51.2094, 3.22523Breakfast was a beautifully presented spread of cereals, several kinds of bread, hard-boiled eggs (still warm), meats and cheese, yogurt, and fruit, including yellow cherries. I sat with Heidi, and she told me about spending the month prior to the tour doing hotel research for the tours. It sounds exhausting!Our guide for the day, Danielle, turned out to be Christian's (from Brussels) wife. She was very fashionable with her red and orange scarf, red sweater, red leather jacket, and red Armani sunglasses. She showed us beautiful old buildings, including the oldest brick house in Bruges. Close to it was a house made of white stone, built at a time when pretty much everyone had a house made of wood. Obviously, whoever could afford a non-wooden house was very wealthy. Even today, the Belgians refer ... read more

Het is bijna zover! Zaterdag vertrekken we naar Rwanda! Onze vluct vertrekt om 11u15 richting Istanbul. Vroeg uit de veren dus! Eens we in Istanbul zijn aangekomen, hebben we 3 uurtjes vrij .. genoeg dus om 'niemandsland' te verkennen! lol. Vervolgens zetten we onze vlucht door naar Kigali, de hoofdstad van Rwanda. Daar worden we opgewacht door familie van Evelyne, waar we tevens ook zullen verblijven gans de vakantie. Onze verblijfplaats is de stad 'Gisenyi'. Voila, dit is als het ware een eerste blogpost ! Ik weet, weinig woorden :P .. maar zo ben ik ook ;) hehe Groeten !... read more

Tuesday, 29 May We farewelled the Netherlands today and as per our custom, spent hours trying to find Thrifty car rental and then arguing with them over our car. Firstly, we went to the airport only to find out that their airport office is not at the airport and neither do they have any signs or courtesy phones to tell you otherwise. Once I finally decided to use my international roaming to call them, we discovered they have a shuttle which picked up from a completely different place to what the Tourist Info had told us. When we arrived, they said “we’re short of cars” and couldn’t give us our Jetta, despite knowing we were coming and specifically wanted that car (I had corresponded via email last month to confirm we were getting the VW and ... read more

The ferry docks about 9.15am the next morning, and we actually meet our Scottish friends again at breakfast. They are feeling a bit worse for wear and say they didn’t get much sleep either due to the bad weather conditions. The drive to Brugge is quite simple and only takes us about half an hour. The problem is trying to find our hotel once we are there, as according to the sat nav it and the street it is on doesn’exist. We drive around in circles before Greg finally admits defeat and asks in the Novotel if they know where it is. They give him a map and directions and after that we find it in no time at all. The room is basic but clean and has a comfy bed, which is the most important ... read more