Bruges, 26-29 March 2010

We are shocked and dismayed at our lapse in blogging over the last year. An immediate remedy is to be put in place, albeit many months late.

After Egypt we kept ourselves occupied. We went to concerts - Bat for Lashes in Bexhill on Sea (which is a cute little seaside town where we stayed in a B & B), and Stereophonics at Wembley Arena (an amazing show with brilliant lighting effects!). We also went to Avenue Q, the musical which was absolutely hilarious but definately not PG.

The next big trip we took after Egypt was Bruges, where we went for a long weekend with our friends Sarah and Simon. This was at the end of March 2010. We took the Eurostar which was great - fast, smooth, and no waiting around at the airport, which has got to be good. The Eurostar went to Brussels, and the ticket included any train travel within Belgium. We had a look round Brussels first and eventually found some breakfast that wasn't just pastries (Rob was insistent he had to have a "proper breakfast" - I was happy with pastries!). Brussels had some pretty spectacular graffiti, and some very impressive buildings. We managed to find the famous Mannikin Pis and got the obligatory photo. Eventually we jumped on a train to Bruges and were amused by the fact it was a double decker. We got to Bruges and got on the bus to go to our hotel which was a little out of town (and nice and cheap because of that!). The trouble was is it turned out to be the wrong bus, so we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere, and had to walk miles before eventually finding the hotel. Sarah and Simon arrived not long after, so we took the right bus into town to get dinner and have a look around.

The town is beautiful, with a lovely town centre with a big cathedral (you might remember it from the movie "In Bruges"...).

We managed to find a tiny little restaurant that served amazing food and had a wander before going back to the hotel for the night.

The next day we were able to explore the city in the daylight. The square in the centre is crazy, with horse-pulled carriages flying around corners at stupid speeds.

We climbed the cathedral and got some amazing views.

Being in Bruges, it was essential we sample the chocolate, and the beer, and in one case a combination of the two. We went to a shop that had hundreds of beers of offer, including chocolate beer and cookie beer,
then we went to a pub which had a menu of the beers that was pretty much a novel - here are Sarah and Simon enjoying - well, Sarah's not a beer fan, hence the wine for her...
The next day we had a healthy breakfast...
The horse and carriages chilled out while waiting for customers - this was one of the occupants.
Being spring, there were daffodils everywhere. This is the Beguinage - a nunnery. It is a lovely peaceful place.
We took a canal ride, unfortunately just as it started raining, but on the plus side it meant the boat wasn't packed with tourists like it usually was. It did clear up about half-way through as well so we got the last laugh.

It was great getting to see all the beautiful buildings from the perspective of the canal. Another must-do was the Chocolate factory in Bruges, where we learnt about the history of chocolate and got to see truffles being made. On Monday we had a bit more time in Brussels, and I had to use some French in a pharmacy to buy some cough medicine when the assistant couldn't speak English. It was more sign language and coughing than speaking French - but it was still fun. We left Belgium with full bellies and a suitcase full of chocolate, mm-mm!