After All We have Been Through - Dont say it's "D"over!

2.7.09 - Brugge, Belgium (Thursday & Friday)

Well off to Brugge we go - it is a long hot drive - 6 hours in total and a fair bit of traffic on the roads, mainly trucks!

There is only one campsite within cooee of Brugge so that is where we go. It is a fairly small campsite but we squeeze into next to an obliging younger couple who move their van over to let us in. Our pitch is at the back of the campsite and backs onto a forest/park area with lovely trees - so we are happy.

Brugge is beautiful little city, surrounded by a lovely river with park and trees along both sides. The river goes through parts of the town as "canals" which are just gorgeous - and the architecture - we love it! It is a bit of a mixture between old french, german and dutch with some modern cubism thrown in. Bob takes a few shots of some styles he would like to replicate for his next building project!

The only issue for us is - yet another language to learn! The languages spoken in Belgium are Dutch and German, with some French thrown in - and of course Flemish (which is really based on Dutch) to the north. French, Spanish and Italian we are up with but another three languages for a few days is just too much for us at this stage of the game. So we throw in the towel a bit and revert to hand language and broken English most of the time - oh well, we are on holidays!

We travel into Brugge on the local bus - another efficient, clean well run transport system. We are only about 2 kms into town so really quite close. The town is, I'm sorry to say, beautiful (I know it sounds unrealistic for every town to be beautiful - but they really are!). The town itself is tidier than most with newer more modern shops but without losing the charm of being built hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We walk around the town and look at the highlights - the town square with cafes and lovely buildings around its perimeter, the city hall, gorgeous gothic cathedrals (all towns have many more cathedrals than the population actually need!), cobble stoned laneways and streets -just lovely!

That night Bob whips up an absolutely delicious dinner of a bacon and tomato pasta dish using a Jamie Oliver's arrabiatta (tomoto and chilli) sauce - gee was it good!

4.7.09 - Brugge (Saturday)

Today we again head off a little later in the day on the local bus into town. We have a look at a few of the sights that we didnt get to see yesterday, including some lace shops where hand made lade is made. We see a real live Bobbin Lady - a lady that makes lace using bobbins.

We find that the Belgians have a very liberal and open view of sex and see a few sex shops in the middle of the street - one that caters for all sexual appetites including for ladies attracted to other ladies (see photo)! We then take a boat cruise down the canals - the trip only took about 40 minutes or so but it was the best 40 minutes ever (and only cost €6.40 each - a bargain!). We were squeezed onto a boat with about 25 others - and didnt have to wait too long for Bob to race up to the paper shop at the last minute to get a Saturday Tele!! The tour guide we had was fantastic and such a character. He did the commentary in three languages (Dutch, German and English) all with a slight stutter and an incredible ability to rolls his "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs" on about every third word (whether the word had an "r" in it or not!) - he was so entertaining . The canals are the highlight of Brugge - so picturesque and peaceful - beautiful!

After the entertaining tour, we go to a Beer Bar (as you do in Belgium) which displays the 870 odd beers available in Belgium! - the bar has all of its chairs and tables perched around and overlooking a canal. Bob tries a couple of different beers while I have a Belgium bubbles and we watch the goings on in the canal - it was a lovely evening, not too hot and not too cold but beautiful. We also watch a gentleman down a very, very large beer - not sure what he was celebrating but all his mates were helping him!

Because it was effectively our last night in Brugge, we find a lovely little restaurant down a laneway where Bob tries another type of Belguim beer and I have a nice glass of wine while we nibble on some scampi (prawns), chirzo and olives. This was followed by Thai prawn salad for me and Chicken skewers on stir fried vegies for Bob - now I know this doesnt sound like Belgium food and you are right - but at least they were cooked in Belgium! We felt like having something relatively healthy and the meals were delicious - this was a wonderful end to a wonderful holiday.

That night when we get home to the campsite, we are invited to a game of boules by the young couple next to us - boules is very popular among young and old throughout Europe. But by this time it is 10pm and we have an early start tomorrow morning back to Calais, so unfortunately we have to give it a miss! Oh well!

Well, that is the end of our wonderful, wonderful holiday - we had the best time, saw and experienced so much and enjoyed every minute!

There are no doubt some questions you are asking, so here are the answers:

1.Would we do it again - you bet!

2. Do we have any regrets - not one!

3.What place did we enjoy the most - too many to mention!

4.And most importantly, are we still talking to each other - surprisingly, yes! (although Bob hasnt read the blogs yet!)

Credits:

I would like to thank the following people for their assistance throughout the adventure:

1.Di and Ross - for opening our mail and advising when and what bills to pay - and also for looking after our unit in New Farm on their occasional visit to Brisbane;

2.Sid - for opening our mail and advising when and what bills to pay when Di and Ross were overseas;

3.Thelly - for actually reading every blog and asking when the next one was to arrive;

4.Robyn (my sister) - for looking after Mum;

5.Faye (my other sister) - for keeping us up to date with property news;

6.Bain Gasteen partners and my work colleagues - the partners for allowing me to take 3 months off and my work colleagues for looking after my work;

7.Shiftwork Solutions (Jim and Bob's work mates) - Jim for allowing Bob to take 3 months off and Bob's work mates for keeping his seat warm;

8.  Kim (Franklin) - for corporate letting our Gemini unit for 12 months so that we could afford to go!;

9.Kath and Ken (our friends in London) - for allowing us to bunk with them in their London unit before and after our European jaunt;

10.Each and every one of our friends - for perservering with our blogs and encouraging me to keep writing!

11.And last, but not least - to BOB - for starring in most of the stories - without him the trip would not have been possible - and not nearly as interesting and enjoyable!