Bruges, Bargins, Booze and Boats

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This morning looks extremely promising – it’s bright and dry. Fingers crossed it will stay this way as we are heading home via a nice long break in Bruges. This is going to be great fun for me as last year I spent a whole week here and I know it pretty well. Basically I’ve told my friend that if she tells me what she want’s to do, I’ll be her tour guide. I’d already whetted her appetite by offering to show her the only sculpture by Michelangelo outside of Italy. Just right for someone in the middle of a part time art degree!

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However, first we have to get there. Everything goes really well and we look like arriving on time. In fact we can see the church towers and belfry before we grind to halt on the main approach. Unfortunately every car and coach appears to be draped in blue and white scarves – who knew Bruges had a football team? It’s extremely frustrating to be so near yet so far. We gradually creep along whilst I crane my neck for any clue as to where we are. Finally we reach the railway station and I breathe a huge sigh of relief. A few short minutes later we are piling off the coach and heading over the little bridge into Minnewater Park.

Unfortunately every car and coach appears to be draped in blue and white scarves – who knew Bruges had a football team?

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Taking charge I leave the main crowd behind, heading for the beautiful view across the water. After a brief photo opportunity we head out of Minnewater and in the direction of the Market Place. We can’t believe our luck as the weather is fabulous. We came here two years ago when it was cold, cloudy and just a bit damp. It makes such a difference to be basking in sunshine.

As we head up the street I point out the Church of Our Lady. We will be coming back later to visit the Italian Renascence. However in the meantime I have another artistic target in mind. We head for the Groeninge Museum. It’s a lovely little gem hidden behind the main streets. It covers a wide range of material from the Flemish school. I had been before but enjoyed visiting again and was pleased that my friend found it really useful.

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After the museum we head back over one of the bridges we’ve just seen a painting of. It leads us into the main square by the town hall and then into the Market Place. Last time we were here, we didn’t have much time to take in our surroundings, so we take a walk around the Christmas market and temporary skating rink. My friend’s all for having a go but I’m not keen to carry her back to the coach with a broken leg.

I check my watch and realise that the Church of Our Lady should now be open for tourists, so we head off find Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child. We had seen a beautiful sculpture of the same subject in the … Museum but I knew it wouldn’t be able to touch this version. Initially my friend is surprised by its size – it does seem lost in the vast space of the Church. However it is breathtakingly beautiful and leaves its audience struck dumb with awe. It’s Mary’s face that really captures the imagination, on the one hand you see a young mother looking lovingly at her son, but there is also serene sadness about her.

Eventually we drag ourselves away and back out into the bright daylight. We take a little time to look round the shops before taking the shortcut through the Belfry. For a few minutes we contemplate climbing to the top, until I point out that there are 273 steps – a fact burnt into my memory on my last visit. I’d climbed it then in the middle of a heat wave and I counted every last one.

Back out in the market we begin to feel a bit peckish so stop at a stall selling doughnuts and fritters. I decide to go for some apple fritters dusted in icing sugar and ended up waiting for what seemed like an age. Eventually I found my friend again and we shared out the spoils, however she wasn’t really taken with them – what a pity – all the more for me!

Time was starting to run out so we headed back to Minnewater, taking time to pop into the shops as we went. My friend was looking for tobacco for her brother – who had kindly stepped in to look after her kids and dog whilst she was away. I was after cherry chocolates for my Mum – they are her absolute favourite and she can make a kilo last for months on end. We pottered around until we both found what we were after. This left us with about 20 minutes to buy some waffles and get back to the coach. Not a problem, we found the shop, paid our money and thought the waffles were just on their way. Then we realised that the shop keeper was actually making them for the other customers who were eating in.

After a frustrating 15 minutes we finally left the shop with our strawberry and cream covered prizes and legged it back towards the coach park. Well we would have if I hadn’t chosen this precise moment to get slightly confused. We took a wrong turn and ended up back tracking a short way much to my friend’s amusement. However we reach the coach only a few minutes late, dripping waffles in hand, only to find there are still others who haven’t turned up yet. Still that gave us plenty of time to eat our very unhealthy lunch.

We eventually left Bruges and set off for Calais. Thankfully we didn’t have to make the usual Unison stop at the local cigarette warehouse to buy up supplies, but we did stop at a booze supermarket to stock up on the cheap alcohol. I’m not very good at this kind of thing as generally I don’t drink a great deal. However I did find some tiny one glass bottles of wine that worked out at 60p each. I bought a dozen as they would be perfect for cooking with. Eventually we made our way back out to the coach, where our fellow travellers were loading crates of booze into the hold of the coach. It was certainly an impressive haul.

Finally we headed for the port and our ferry back home. Looking back, I really wished I’d had the sense to take my travel sick pills. I’d remembered on the journey out, but realised too late that we were heading for troubled waters. However it didn’t put me off my food. We made it to the canteen and were sitting down to our meal before we had even left the harbour. This time I made sure I ordered the freshly cooked steak and chips, insisting on having it rare and gaining grudging approval from the French kitchen staff. As my friend discovered on the trip out, this was delivered to me piping hot and tasted fantastic.

Now mid Channel, we realised that the ship was rocking and rolling quite a bit. Whilst I sat in the Restaurant this was okay, but as soon as we went for a walk my stomach decided it wanted to go in the opposite direction. I struggled around the duty free where bottles were dancing about on the shelves and even made it to the lounge at the front of the ship, but there I sat down and steadfastly refused to move until we docked or someone put me out of my misery. What I find really annoying is that I always thought I was rather good on ships and boats. Perhaps it’s my age. Whatever it is it’s a real nuisance, particularly when we end up spending an extra hour tossing and turning at sea.

I’ve never been so happy to see dry land. However it is tempered by the realisation that we have yet another marathon drive ahead of us. Remind me next year to give coaches and ferries a miss. Let’s hear it for Eurostar instead!