Bruges, Scott's Version

Back from Bruges in Belgium after an excellent few days between Christmas and New Years.

Despite being led somewhat astray at the info centre in Brussels (they sent us on the ONLY one of 14 trains that head towards the coast from Brussels that doesn't go through Bruges) we made it in at about 7pm on the evening of the 26th. A cheap cab ride from the train station put us into the very centre of the old town where our hotel was. We couldn't have asked for a better location - dead centre, right behind the big clocktower and square that is the heart of Bruges.


We checked in and spent a while wandering around, stopping in a little restaurant just off the square for an excellent, if somewhat pricey, dinner. A few pints of lovely Belgian beer later, bellies full of mussels, flemish beef stew and chips, we headed back to the hotel and more or less passed out.

The next day dawned bright but foggy. We started, as one does, with a big Belgian waffle from a little shop and started walking and shooting. We spent most of the day wandering about, sampling beer and chips as we went (they do both *really* well). Unfortuantely Bruges is almost comically photogenic and we both became concerned that we'd run out of room on our memory cards for photos, only having room for several thousand shots between us.

Almost as if to prove that not everything in Bruges is quaint and well-done, we had dinner in a restaurant that seemed to go out of its way to be pretentious and slightly offensive. The decor was shiny and trendy, the food certainly looked good, however the waiters were awful, acting as though our presence was somehow tedious. On the other hand, the steak was tasty and as always, we can find a bright side in a bottle of wine.

Day 3 turned out to be brilliantly sunny, and a fair bit warmer that the day before - so much so that the ice on the canals had all melted. We decided to do a walking tour of the "off the beaten track" areas of Bruges which was in our little guide book, and we realized that they're off the beaten track for a very good reason - it's very boring. I suppose if you lived there, you'd want quiet little streets with nothing on them but rows of houses, not a pub in sight, but not if you're looking for a pub crawl on your vacation. We made it to the windmills on the edge of town, took a few quick snaps, and headed rapidly back in the direction of the crowds, waffles, and most importantly, beverages.

The only real downside of a town like Bruges is that there isn't much to do other than walk, photograph, and enjoy the local hospitality of various establishments. We discovered, much to Jamie's delight and my dismay (on considering my previously safe beer fridge stock) that Jamie really enjoys Belgian beer. We sampled extensively from the local selection, including Brugge Zot Blonde (brewed right in town, we did the brewery tour), the old standby Leffe, Tongerlo, Kriek Mystic (which turned out to be a cherry beer, pink in colour, much to my horror and the barman's amusement), Kwak, and several others (our memory seems to be a bit foggy for reason...).

Dinner that night looked like it would be a winner, and we were hopeful for a memorable experience after the horrorshow of the prior night. We definately got a memorable night.

We'd chosen a little place near our hotel that apparenly had been featured in the 2008 Michelin guide, and featured a very limited menu that they assured us was so small so that they could focus on the quality of each dish, as opposed to doing a whole bunch of dishes badly. Seemed good in theory, however I think they were cooking each table individually as it took more than 3 hours to complete the meal - we waited just over an hour between courses at one point. Despite the slowness, the food was excellent and they kept pouring the wine (we ponied up for the wine pairings) to keep us occupied between courses.

We were disappointed to have to leave on our final day. We got up relatively early and climbed the clocktower to get the panoramic views over the town, before dropping our bags at the hotel and checking out. We spent a few more hours wandering around, stopping for an extended lunch of mussels and chips, and possibly a couple more Leffes for good measure. We were forced, almost at gunpoint, to indulge in a few more hot mulled wines before walking the 20 minutes back to the train station.

We made it from Bruges back to Brussels with no incident this time, and caught the 5pm Eurostar back to London. I wonder how long my Belgian beer is going to last, what with Jamie developing a taste for it...next she'll be into my scotch, and then all hell will break loose...