Bruges - November 2019

I remember back to last Christmas when myself and Donna were so surprised at the gift that Jake gave us; £250 in travel vouchers. And then, the decisions we had to make regrading where we would like to visit. We considered various options, some would require flights, we also looked within the UK, but one place we have always wanted to visit was the medieval town of Bruges in Belgium. The journey (not literally) to get there was a little fraught as the travel company went into liquidation, so we had to re-book our accommodation again, but thankfully it didn't cause us too much stress. And we booked Eurotunnel to get us across the channel as we'd never used it before and to be honest going under the channel was quite exciting.

So around came the 6th November and we left home at 6:10am. Lots of hold ups on our way down to Folkestone but we got there in time, a short 35 minute trip under the channel and out onto the right hand side of the road in Calais and on our way. I had planned a bit of a detour on the way to Bruges, a visit to a coastal town about 8 miles north of the town. However, it wasn't up to much so we never actually got out of the car. It was a bit of a waste of an hour if I am being honest! After unpacking at the hotel we walked the 1.5 miles into the town centre and got our first glimpse of the stunning buildings at night. We meandered around the narrow cobbled streets and ended up spending 2hrs in a small bar getting a little tipsy on Belgian Beer and Poppy Gin. Of course we walked back to the hotel, always a good way to get some fresh air after a few drinks.

Back home was being battered by heavy rain with many areas flooded in the county, however over in Belgium all we had was a wet morning on the Thursday so just lazed around the hotel room until it dried up. Then a drive of around 1hr down to Ypres. We visited Paschendale museum which to be honest was very busy with groups of school children and the older generation, so we missed much of what was on display. The best and most humbling part of the day was to come with a visit to Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest number of UK war dead are buried there, and then later that evening the 8pm last post at the Menin Gate in Ypres. A ceremony that has taken place every night since 1928 apart from 4 years of WWII when the area was occupied. Very moving. The next day the forecast was for great weather and we weren't disappointed. Again we walked into the town and spent all day there, not getting back to the hotel until around 7pm after covering well over 10 miles. We spent many hours wandering around the narrow streets, and also a boat ride around the canals which gave us a great view of areas that you can't see from the streets. A really enjoyable day.

On Saturday morning we went back into Bruges centre, this time though we took the car as we would be travelling later in the day. We spent some time wandering around and bought some of the famous Belgian Chocolates to take back home, and some decorations for the Christmas tree that would remind us of our visit. We also had the same brunch as we had enjoyed the day before, and this would fill us up for most of the day. Our last night was an overnight stay in Dunkirk. On the drive over we went to a quaint little chateau not far from the France/Belgium border. The visit was ok, but nothing to wrote home about. In fact we only spent an hour or so there before we set off on our way. Now the last part of our trip was probably one that given the time again we would have arranged differently. We didn't really enjoy it much in Dunkirk, the place was a tad disappointing to say the least. And to top if off, we had expected to be taking part in Remembrance Sunday services in Northern France, but we discovered when there that they show their respects on the 11th of November itself, so the Monday, and they have a public holiday. After discovering that aspect, we made the decision to get the earlier Eurotunnel train back on the Sunday. Which to be honest worked out better as it didn't mean a long 6hr drive back in the dark. A really enjoyable few days, we really enjoyed the trip and fully expect to be back to Belgium again some day soon.