<![CDATA[

Brugge, Belgium

We have had a number of late nights in Berlin – including last night eating dinner close to 10pm, so this morning we slept as long as we could. I was sitting up in bed enjoying my plunger coffee when the door opened giving full view if looking from the door to the right. Shock! I happen to sleep in the Emperors clothes so someone got a mighty eye full.

I rung reception and asked who and why opened my door at 9:30am and they apologised and said they would look into it. For some reason housekeeping wanted to start early and they claim they knocked. Really? Neither of us heard it and Vernon has pretty good hearing – the hotel explained that it was too early and they should not be doing rooms then anyway and apologised again. Quite annoying as it simply should not have happened and I am selective as to who I am exposed to:-)

After that abrupt start to the day, it was time to pack for our travel burst across to Belgium. We started with the underground, changed to the S Bahn (above ground airport express train 40 minutes) to arrive at Schoenfeld airport. This was the East German civil airport and also near where they are building the delayed new big Berlin airport.

The current one is really old and small and grotty. Figured that is because it was the East not many people would have been allowed to use it! Food is expensive there and limited on the ground floors. We didnt find out till we checked through that there were some better options upstairs including a little pub with nice fat bockwurst which was annoying as we put up with a terrible cake and coffee combo for 5.90 euro and 4.90 euro for a chewy roll from downstairs.

Easy Jet’s lounge was a room with a couple of chairs and looked like a cattle yard. We had to wait ages on our feet quite close to lots of other grumpy tourists. The 1.10hr flight was ok in an airbus, but no where as roomy or well fitted as the Air Berlin one, of course no drinks etc unless you bought them.

Brussells airport is flash and huge, I think we walked around 15 minutes or over 1km to get our baggage. Whilst we were waiting we heard yowling as a dog in a pet pack went round telling their daddy or mummy off for not hurrying up! LOL. The airport has an underground train which connects to the city and an information and ticketing counter to get you on your way. To get to Bruges we had one change at Brussells north, and then it was an hour from there.

Brussells city has some quite grotty parts not far from the posh political center. The scenery towards Bruges got nicer the closer we got and looked more and more dutch – but of course its Flemish here. Facinating to see huge white, black and white, and blue roan coloured cows with muscles on them like body builders. They have higher forequarters than rear and almost double muscling on their hind quarters. I looked it up on uncle google and they are Belgium Blues. Fabulous beasts and mighty tasty too I bet! I also saw some funny looking goats that had legs like dashounds – full size body and tiny legs a bit like a sheep LOL.

Whilst we were on the train we discussed whether we would stay on in Belgium a couple of nights more and skip the 2 night stop over in the Loire Valley before heading to Normandy for 3 nights. A number of reasons prompted this discussion; I am feeling a bit tired at the moment and the thought of a few quick turn arounds was not appealing. Other reasons are that we have seen a few castles and palaces already, would rather not loose any more days in travel than we have to, and accommodation at over $300 in France a night verses the $100 a night in Bruges. We decided that if we liked the vibe in Bruges we would stay and forfeit the cheap train ticket to Paris that we had pre-purchased and was non refundable – only 58 euro for both of us (put against accommodation costs it was not an issue).

At the station we saw on a map that our B&amp;B was a decent walk (25 mins) and it was 8pm so we splurged and got a taxi which only cost 9 euro. As soon as we started our taxi journey I was oohing and aahing at the beautiful city with canals and dutch gabled buildings everywhere. Our friendly taxi driver was giving us pointers on the sights and I just felt straight away that I would really enjoy staying here longer than 2 sleeps and one day. Vernon also felt that it would be a good place to stop, so that was a decision done and dusted much to my relief.

Our room is up two steep, narrow and a little curvy in places flights of stairs in a 1673 ‘listed’ tall gabled house. Hugo has three rooms to let and they each have a different theme. Ours is called Lady Jane and is charming in deep wine paint with a four poster bed, on a sloping and creaking dark wooden floor. The view out of the window is just as delightful overlooking other gabled homes on neat cobbled streets with the huge bell tower in the distance.

Unfortunately Hugo is booked up for the extra nights we hoped to stay, so we will find somewhere else but that is not a problem. Thankfully his wifi is quick and that makes life so much easier. We went for a quick stroll and as it was after 9pm we just grabbed a cheap middle eastern mixed grill and some nice Belgium purified water (beer). One of the challenges in Bruges is the very expensive but fine dinning! It has the most Michelin restaurants per capita in Europe and being so close to France most of the chefs are trained there.

On travel guided tours and information guides I read that most people only pass through the city in a day. On first impressions I cant understand why as its quite a good size – around 117,000 people, really beautiful and full of those historic things people come to Europe for. Feeling energised now by this interesting city and great vibe we are looking forward to exploring some new territory once again (not to mention the Belgium chocolate and beer).

]]>