The travels of Tim and Megan: Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium

Friday

On Friday night (11 December) we met up at King's Cross St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Belgium. As it turned out, tube delays, massive queues at M&S (we had to get some supplies for the trip) and more queues for security etc, meant that we boarded our 6.34pm train at around about 6.33pm. There were nine of us in total spending the weekend in Bruges and eight were sitting together on the train (Becs was meeting us there on Saturday).

We had loads of food and drink - almost a bottle of bubbly each, so the two hour trip to Brussels flew by. We actually ran out of wine before Brussels, so Kristen staggered down the train and returned triumphantly with several miniature bottles of wine for the group! We almost missed our second train of the night in Brussels. We got off the Eurostar there and were waiting for the connecting train to Bruges, which we thought was delayed (so the announcements seemed to be telling us). Three of us were in dire need of a toilet and decided to make a dash for it. When we returned the train was there and everyone else had boarded it and the doors were closed. The train conductor must have felt sorry for us and held the train while we boarded. Very close call.

We arrived in Bruges around 11pm and walked towards the town centre, where we were booked in to "Hotel Nicolas", a B&B tucked in behind the main square. We got most of the way in to town no worries and then we got a little lost. The manager of Hotel Nicolas was obviously a nutter - he phoned Kristen and abused her, saying that he had been waiting for us for two hours (even though we were only about 20 minutes late) and that he knew we were out drinking instead of checking in. He called several more times in the next 15 minutes - Tim eventually talked to him and copped some more outrageous accusations. We turned up at the B&B and he had another go at us, complaining that his wife is pregnant and he has a small child. We were all fairly sure that neither of those things was our fault!

Once checked in, a few of us went to a bar down the road and had a few drinks. It was really fun, although we had all forgotten how disgusting it is to be in small bars full of cigarette smoke. We were in a bar full of about 60 people and we were probably the only five people not smoking - although we techincally were. Our clothes, hair, skin all stunk of smoke - delightful.

Saturday

We began Saturday with breakfast downstairs, where the manager and a woman who also worked in the B&B were very apologetic about the guy's rant the night before and they could not have been nicer - mood swings are always fun. Breakfast was pretty good - standard European breakfast really. Then we set off for the main square.

Being Christmas, they had transformed the square into a fanciful Christmas extravaganza - complete with Christmas market stalls and an ice-skating rink! It was obviously cold but we were very lucky with the weather really - blue sky and sun for most of the weekend. We checked out the Christmas stalls and then made our way to one of the chocolate shops that Belgium is famous for. The smell in the shop was divine. They had a big chocolate fountain in the shop that we could dip marshmallows in for tasting - so yum.

As we had been to Bruges before, we had already seen/done most of the tourist attractions - plus Bruges is not abundant with tourist attractions. It's more about relaxing in the beautiful medieval town, eating chocolate and drinking beer. One thing we had not done, however, was climb up the Belfry Tower in the main square. The bell tower is the city's most prominent landmark. It is 83m high and we climbed the 366 (very narrow) steps to the top. Unfortunately the big safety bars all around the top of the tower detract from the views, although we did get a great photo looking down to the ice-skating rink in the square (see below).

The rest of the day consisted largely of eating and drinking. After our assault on the tower, we found a little cafe and stopped in for hot drinks - although Tim and Nathan decided it was not too early for a small beer. Next stop was back in the square where we grabbed some hot food for lunch. The hot dogs were brilliant. Kristen got abused (in Flemish) by an old woman on a bike who she nearly collided with - it hadn't been a good 24 hours for her in terms of abuse received.

After lunch most of us (apart from Paul and Tim) went ice-skating. It was a really cool little ice rink, with a Christmas tree in the centre, and they played an assortment of cheesy 1980s music too. Everyone was really good and there were even a few tricks coming out!!! After skating, girls and boys split up and went our separate ways - girls shopping and boys to the pub. The girls checked out a few shops and then the other Christmas markets stalls, while the lads found a pub with massive beer wall featuring hundreds of different types of beer (photo below). We met up again later in the afternoon, did some more chocolate shopping and then decided it was far too cold to be outside so we all retired to a pub near our B&B. We spent a couple of hours in there trying out a few different Belgian beers and then returned to the B&B to get ready for dinner. Becs had finally made her way to Bruges and joined us as we headed out for dinner.

We had dinner at a restaurant called La Taverne Brugeoise, one of the beautiful old medieval style buildings pictured a few times below that form one side of the main square. They even let us sit upstairs looking out over the beautifully lit up square. The food was pretty good (amongst the favourites were the traditional Belgian pot of mussels and the steak frites) and the beer and wine was even better. We lost a soldier (who shall remain nameless) to red wine - he had to head back to the B&B for a sleep along with a couple of tired kids, while most of us continued on for a few drinks elsewhere and some random late night posing for photos on a canal bridge!

Sunday

On Sunday morning half of our crew left us to do the day tour of the war fields out of Bruges. The remaining five of us had a big sleep in before “Angry Manager” returned to kick us out of our rooms at precisely 11am, not a second after the check-out time. Crucial to get those rooms empty on time, even if it means being rude and abusive to guests.

After breakfast we toyed with the idea of walking/bussing to the nearby town of Damme. However, no buses were running and it was a little cold and far to walk. We had a lovely walk along the canal to the outskirts of Bruges and then decided that was enough and we headed back into the town centre. It was a beautiful clear sunny morning, but very cold.

We bought some souvenirs and then some more chocolate and then returned to the square for another round of hot dogs for lunch. By early afternoon the temperatures plummeted further and it even looked like snowing at one stage. After a bit more shopping (we especially loved the toy shop, packed with hand-made wooden toys), we found a lovely smoke-filled café and set up camp there for the rest of the afternoon with a pack of cards. Hot drinks were followed by delicious Belgian beer.

In the evening we moved to another pub close to our B&B where we could watch the first half of Liverpool v Arsenal – in another smoke-filled pub! It was just as well we had to leave at half-time, as our lungs were about to give out due to all the smoke and some of the locals were getting far too friendly with each other… It did mean, however, that we missed a stirring Arsenal comeback, as they came from behind to win 2-1.

We met the others at the train station and very very sleepily made the journey back to London town.