So... I just got back (well, on Friday) from a week's holiday in Bruges. I went with Rob, John, Rachel and Ali. Bruges is every bit as 'nice' as everyone says - it was a great place to spend a week. Lots to do, everything's in walking distance, and wherever you go there are interesting things to see. I could have enjoyed the holiday more than I did, but that wasn't really Bruges's fault.

Here is what we did...

1st August (Friday): Caught the train from Leicester to St Pancras, then the Eurostar to Brussels, then found a train to Bruges. All in all that was about 4 hours of trains, with gaps inbetween. The trains in Belgium are much nicer than ones in England - we went on one with an upstairs! We didn't go upstairs though. Maybe next time. :) Once there we walked to the self catering flat place we were staying, and after they'd thrown two people out who weren't supposed to be in there (hum!) we left our stuff and explored. We ate friets with various things in the Markt (I had stoofvlees, yum) and ended up watching a concert in the Burg - part of the Klinkers Festival - Miss Platnum. I had never heard hip hop with a brass section, very bohemian!

2nd August (Saturday): Mainly spent wandering around and exploring.

3rd August (Sunday): We watched the Grand Prix - spent a while finding a French TV channel and the commentary in English from BBC Radio but I have a feeling the TV did actually pick up ITV! Then we wandered around some more, saw lots of windmills.

4th August (Monday): Today we had a boat ride along the canals, which was fun. We also went to the Chip Museum, which was not just about chips, but also about potatoes. Amazing. It was very well done, a newish museum. We walked to the lock keeper's house and the lake and saw a turtle, and went through the nunnery though didn't see any nuns.

5th August (Tuesday): Went to another museum owned by the owner of the Chip Museum - the Chocolate Museum. (He also owns the Lamp Museum!) Learnt lots of things about chocolate, yum. After that we went to the Archaeology Museum, which was impressive since it hardly used any words, it had lots of interactives. It was very cheap to get into, which was also good. :) We also walked to one of the gatehouses on the west of the city, and saw the traitor's skull.

6th August (Wednesday): Today we went to the De Halve Maan Brewery, the only working brewery in Bruges. It was an entertaining tour, and I did drink some of the free beer at the end (Zot) - still don't like beer though! We ended up at a church called St. Walburgha's, which was an amazing bit of Catholic splendour.

7th August (Thursday): Today some of us (not John and me) went up the Belfry. 366 steps! But from the photos they brought back, it was worth it. We wandered around a fair bit and bought chocolate and lace (as you do) and ended the day with more friets and a ride in a carriage pulled by a horse named Lucky.

8th August (Friday): Taxi to the station, train to Brussels, Eurostar to London, train to Leicester, taxi home.

So, by the end of the holiday we'd eaten chips, waffles and chocolate and tried several sorts of beer (including apple and cherry), been on a boat ride and a horse ride and visited lots of museums. All in all, not bad going!

Found it odd that you can't easily buy fresh milk in Belgium - lots of what must be UHT. Probably some other things that we found odd but I can't remember them at the moment. :)

If you'd like to see some of my photos, there are some here...