In Brugge

After spending a wonderful day and half with Bert we drove to Brugge.

Brugge truly lived up to it’s reputation as being one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We have quickly learnt that the best time to see a city is early in the morning. On this occasion we arrived before 9am on a Sunday and were rewarded with beautiful light, empty streets, and pristinely still canals yielding perfectly clear reflections.

We spent the whole day soaking up the amazing atmosphere in the city. We took a boat tour through the canals, sampled Belgian waffles, enjoyed a beer overlooking the swans on the water, and visited many chocolate shops.

The chocolate in Brugge - and all of Belgium for that matter – was divine. So much so that even Daniel, who would normally be much happier with a cheese platter, found himself indulging.

The only slight downside to an otherwise gorgeous city was the rather unpleasant waft of sewerage which tended to overpower the much more pleasant scent of hot waffles and chocolates. We have discovered that this problem is not isolated to Brugge, and that it seems to be a bit of an issue throughout the old towns of Belgium. Never mind...it was worth it!

Brussels with Bert

Feeling greatly recharged, the three of us made our way into Brussels. The clear highlight is the Grand Plas – a truly stunning town square featuring buildings from the 1600s that have been painted gold, and feature stone carved gargoyles staring ominously at passers by.

The other key tourist attraction, albeit slightly bizarre, is Manneke Pis – a small water fountain of a little boy doing a wee. There was a huge crowd of people standing around taking photos, so of course we joined in. As I’m sure you can imagine, the souvenirs in the surrounding shops were quite unique!

We also managed to find his female counterpart hidden away down a dingy laneway….a little girl named Jaenneke Pis squatting, also doing a wee. Thankfully, we didn’t find any corresponding souvenirs!

We have had an amazing time on our trip so far, but it was truly a blessing to see a beloved face and spend some quality time with Dad.

Catching up with Dad

A fantastic coincidence resulted in us being in Brussels at the same time as Monique’s dad for a whole 24 hours. He had been in Europe on business for the past two weeks.

He completely spoilt us by booking us a room in his hotel, plus treating us to a delicious dinner and breakfast. After a month of hostelling, and still recovering from the shock of our cozy campervan, arriving at the hotel was like being a kid at Christmas time. The clean, crisp sheets, free mini bar, sparkling bathroom, cloud-like mattress, and distinct lack of musty towel smell left us dizzy with excitement.

We spent the evening catching up over a fantastic Italian meal while Dad and Daniel sampled some Belgian beer.

We were up bright and early the next morning to set about seeing Brussels. While it was an early start, the blow was softened by a magnificent buffet breakfast. Things taste so much better when they come in miniature hotel-sized containers. Thanks to Dad, we get to continue enjoying mini hotel breakfast products – he may or may not have smuggled out a few items each morning for the week he was staying in the hotel, handing over to us a giant bag of tiny breakfast treats – now affectionately referred to as ‘The Loot Bag’.   

While all of this was fantastic, the overwhelming highlight was seeing Dad. 

Gent (Like ‘Tent’, but with a guttural ‘G’)

To avoid driving the van into Gent, and thus not risking our lives on road, we decided to catch the bus.

As has become our custom, we found a tourist information brochure so that we could do some reading about Gent and it’s attractions before we arrived. We were quite intrigued as to what we would find when we read the very first line in the brochure….’The people of Gent are headstrong and obstinate. If this was not something that we were proud of, then we would be offended.’

Despite this potentially ominous warning, we knew that we were going to be in for a good day – the moment that we sighted the centre of town we literally gasped at its beauty. We were immediately struck by the distinct Belgian architecture and the gorgeous canals snaking through the city.

We wandered around the meandering cobble-stoned streets for a few hours and then enjoyed some typically fantastic Belgian beer and friet sitting in the glorious sun by the canal.

It was a great way to kick off things on the other side of the channel. And thankfully, despite their warning to the contrary, the people of Gent were lovely.