The Bruges Cruise

They say Bruges is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Now we havent been everywhere in the world but we have been to some of the better known 'beautiful' cities like Paris and Venice and we would have to say there is something extraordinary about Bruges. For a start it is neither full of Frenchy's nor is it full of Italians, it is discrete, fairytale like and has fantastic beer - perhaps that is a good start?

This weekender was originally Duncan's sisters idea as it was her birthday and she wanted everyone to get together for something different. We were so glad we did. Sonia had 3 of her friends come over as well as her parents and we brought along Mike and Bec's dad, Gary. Bec's and Gary had spent the Friday exploring London while Duncan and Mike were slaving away at the office. After work, the boys made their way into London where we all met up in the city with Bec's, Gary and our friends Tracy and Ritchie to watch one of their friends bands play at a pub in the suburbs. To say this part of town was dodgy is an understatement. We were frisked at the pub door and were offered drugs blatantly on our way out. Not to mention one of the acts was a local nutter who wrote a song about how he got bashed just down the road from the pub. Nice. So once again we found ourselves staying in some ultra-cheap accommodation in London the night before catching the Eurostar. This was because the Eurostar prices ramp up significantly during peak periods and our tickets were for the el cheapo early morning trips. Anyways, the place this week was much nicer than the week before and we all managed to get to the station on time to catch our train. It was another great ride on the Eurostar which is becoming one of our favourite ways to get to Europe.

Our Eurostar stop was at Brussels where we had a free ticket to change to a local train for Bruges. Sonia and co decided to spend some time in Brussels while our group headed on for Bruges to check in and start our tourist activities. Walking out the doors of the train station we were greeted by a sea of bicycles. European cities are not suited to car travel at all and as a result the bicycle dominates.

Our fist impressions of Bruges was that it was like a fairytale movie set. Every street and building seemed to be miniturised in some way, although it wasn't, it just felt like this is where the 7 dwarfs must have lived. Every street was cobblestones and every single building had characteristics out of a storybook. We instantly loved it. There were tiny bridges curving over narrow canals, charming little trinket stores and every street seemed to curve away around a corner so that everywhere you stood in the city was like its own little place to be. It reminded us of the Labyrinth in a funny way. You never knew where the next turn would take you but it was very exciting just to go looking.

We soon wandered our way into the square where the townsfolk were preparing for some huge parade celebrating some queens birthday that died a few hundred years earlier. we stayed to watch some of the excitement but eventually found that the excitement was just a little too foreign and a little too boring for us so as luck would have it there was a traditional Bruges pub to be found in an alley off the main square. This pub was to form our meeting spot on most days and its friendly atmosphere and over 400 beers was enough to keep us coming back. We were amazed at the types of beer you could get. We didn't seriously attempt to try them all but we made sure we tried a few that were probably some of the most unusual. We had banana beer, raspberry beer, super dark beer and even chocolate beer! (not as nice as banana though). Derek got a surprise when he was delivered a beer with a woman on the mug who clothes mysteriously vanished once chilled. Derek laughed, Rosalie glared and Gary sat at the bar with a guilty smile on his face.

The next day we decided to spread out across Bruges taking in the sights. Bec's, Gary and Mike went for a boat ride around the canals while Duncan, Sonia and their parents went on a bicycle tour around the outskirts of the Bruges and down to the next village. Everyone reconvened back at the local pub for some further strange beer sampling and then we readied ourselves for a meal out in the square to celebrate Sonia's birthday. It was a fantastic evening and the waiters even arranged a special cake for Sonia complete with sparklers on top.

The following day were decided to explore on foot and made our way across town to an ancient church that housed a Michaelangelo sculpture of Mary and baby Jesus. It was great to see another Michaelangelo sculpture outside of Italy. During our day we had seen many people riding around in old fashioned carts pulled along by horses. We decided this must be fun and so Becs, Mike, Gary and Duncan all queued up for a tour of Bruges by horse and cart. The tour took us through the city past old windmills, a monastery, ancient churches and over canals. Our driver gave us a commentary as we rode along snapping pictures as we went. Afterwards, Mike and Gary felt it must have been time for another local beer while Bec's and Duncan decided to ascend the great clock tower that dominated the square. This tower was a bit of a climb but the view from the top was amazing. Bruges was a seas of terracotta roofs, cobblestone street and winding canals. Up the top of the tower was a great big steel musical wheel which drove the massive bell chimes on the hour. The wheel was about the size of a small truck and was basically a large scale version of those little musical chime boxes that you wind up. Who knows how they lifted this thing up as it must have weighed a tonne!

Back down the bottom we picked up Mike and Gary and met everyone else for dinner in one of the smaller squares off the side of the main center. Our weekend in Bruges turned out to be one of the best weekends we had had on our journey so far. It was especially great that such a big group of friends and family could meet together in a foreign city and spend time together sampling the life and surrounds.