Before I launch into our Bruges Easter adventure I would like to point out that due to popular request we have now opened up the site so you can post your comments. So go for your lives, we'll look forward to reading them.
Righto onto Bruges. Located in Belgium, Bruges is approximately 1 hour train ride out of Brussels. It is an exceptionally pretty town with a population of around 50,000 people, although over the Easter break (when we were there) the town doubled it's population thanks to it being extremely popular not only to tourists but also the Belgians.
The town is built around a series of canals thus the reason why Bruges is referred to as the "Venice of Belgium".
So enough of the factual stuff and onto what we actually got up to. Belgium is very famous for mainly three things
1. The Mussels
2. The Beer
3. The Chocolate
You'll be happy to hear that we feasted on Mussels for our first meal
We then managed to locate a small pub with over 300 beers available on the menu......of course we had to give that our best nudge. The amazing thing was that with every beer had its own branded glass to go with it....if only my bag was big enough so I could take some as souveniers he he he he! Amber wish you were there with me!
And this was of course where we stayed for the remainder of our first day in Bruges. In fact it turned into a tidy little 6 or 7 hour session. Vecchio you'll also be happy to hear that they have brewed a beer especially for you.......
Yes ole Satan himself has a beer named after him 'Lucifer' and you'll be happy to hear that it was one of the better beers I tasted that day. It was also a cool 8% alcoholic volume which perhaps explains the name a little. I also tried to put my best devil grin on for this photo but unfortunately it doesn't come close to our friend Vec :-).
The night ended in one of the local nightclubs which was interesting to say the least. Again forfilling my duty as husband finder for certain singles I have yet again found a must visit place for you in Belgium....except I can't remember the name of it he he he he....it was late alright! Anyway myself and Prue were the only females amongst a room full of Nordich men.....oh yeah and two Aussie blokes (ie Loges and Jeremy).
The beauty of places like Bruges is that nothing gets moving until around 10am which was, just quietly, very welcome considering our previous nights activities. And even better the hotel where we were staying actually offered greasy bacon and eggs on the menu! I think we were all thanking god for small mercies that morning.
Day two began with a stroll around the town just taking in the scenery that we perhaps might've missed the day prior due to beer goggles. Day two also proved interesting for me because I had somehow managed to pick up a slight gastro issue so along with the beautiful architecture, history and canals I also had an unwelcome tour of pretty much all the public toilets around Bruges (unfortunately no photos here, ohhhhhhhh I hear you all say). Anyway a small technical hitch such as this did not stop us from visiting the Chocolate Festival which was on in town for the weekend (as a side note their toilets were very clean). Yes rooms and rooms containing chocolate in every possible shape and form. Some more creative that others
And of course you can't get through life without this style of chocolate
Before I could get in to take this shot I had to wait for a woman and her approximately 8 year old son to make his choice of just how many of each variety he wanted. Big future ahead for that fella I can see.
So after a few hours of browsing rooms and rooms of chocolate our next stop was at a cafe that had waffles on the menu. Of course! Unfortunately no photos here cos they were consumed way too quickly to allow time for any Kodak style moment. Just believe me when I say THEY WERE THE BOMB!
Following on from our scrummy waffles it was back to the hotel for a freshen up before heading to dinner. Hmmmmmmm I think I can see a pattern developing here. What I did find out at dinner was that not only do the Belgians do a mean beer, chocolate and pot of mussels but they also make a mean hotpot stew. Yummmm!
We decided at dinner that perhaps our hips needed some rescuing so made the call that we'd done all we wanted to do in Bruges (as pretty as it is 2 days is ample time) and would catch an early train back into Brussels the next day to have a look around there.
On arrival into Brussels we decided to head into the centre part of the city. Sounds easy I know, especially when you have a map, but what the maps don't tell you is that there is the right side to walk out of the rail station and the wrong way. Of course we chose the wrong way which took us straight smack bang into the seedy part of town. In fact I had to turn around and ask Loges if it was actually Brussels station we got off at or whether we'd overshot and ended up in Saudi. More middle easterners in this part of town than the middle east itself I reckon. What was even more interesting was that there was not a female in sight. Hmmmmmm I wonder if it had to do with the fact that we were surrounded by sex shops, brothels and the like........I wonder!
Anyway good news is that we managed to navigate our way into what was obviously a big tourist hub where we got to take in some of the infamous Brussels architecture.
Because we were there on a Sunday unfortunately there wasn't alot opened however we were more than content to wander around taking in the scenery and atmosphere.....and read the prices of a pot of mussels and realise we'd been ripped off in Bruges.
One little 'feel good' story to finish off our Belgian adventure. When we were in Paris we discovered that Eurostar has a first class lounge (very similar to Qantas Club). Because we had first class tickets we attempted to get in the lounge only to find out that you had to be a member to gain entry. So even though we knew the case we decided to attempt the same stunt in Brussels, and guess what..............they told us that we had to be a member to gain access (we were bored waiting for our train so decided to amuse ourselves, ok!)..........so forlorn and with our tails between our legs we started to leave the lounge when all of a sudden this guy jumps up and says "wait I keep getting all these passes sent to me and I never use them so would like to give a couple up to you guys", so after many enthusiastic thank you's it was back into the lounge where Loges could check the cricket score and we could enjoy a final beer or few on Eurostar. What a nice way to end our trip hey!
And so ends our Belgian adventure.
