I’ve been wanting to visit Bruges for a long time, and eventually managed to get to there via Eurostar in September.
Somewhat surprisingly, I’m still on the 0% and this was a fabulous tasting drink.
What can I say except, Magnificent.
The 1st evening there was a walkabout & getting out into the suburbs away from the centre. I personally preferred this area as it was quiet. I don’t enjoy being in crowds.
Yet another beautiful building. Bruges is full of them.
EATING OUT IN BRUGES
I could write a lot about food or the trouble finding food. As I have adopted a mainly vegan lifestyle, it gets a bit frustrating, and overall Bruges is not that vegan friendly. At least in Bruges I got to say, “sans fromage” and they knew what I meant.
GETTING BY
YOU CAN just about get by, and on the 1st night the chef rustled up something up for us, it was spaghetti with vegetables, very simple and quite tasty.
We had an Indian curry in a proper Indian restaurant, one evening, and a curry from Delaney’s the Irish pub, on the last night, the latter was tremendous for the bowel movements I have to say.
It wasn’t until after the trip that I found a vegan blogger from Bruges who listed a whole load of places that will or won’t accommodate vegans. However some of them wanted you to write and email two days before to let them know your coming. That was a bit much.
EATING OUT CONTINUED
Another place that I quite liked and I really don’t know why the UK can’t do it, was a soup place, they just did sandwiches and soup. I got a mushroom soup, –sans fromage , as you can get a cheesy panini on the side, I just had bread, they also give you a small apple with it , which was really cute.
DANKE JU- MERCI and DAG
I thanked the woman and complimented her on the soup she had cooked. I told her how difficult it was to get a bowl of soup in London. she was surprised. By the way when I was doing a mock website design for my diploma in social media I designed a site called soup kitchen- I had in mind a cosy place in Camberwell for the hospital workers, it could definitely do with one.
PS some of the people speak a sort of French, and some a bit Dutch, it was a bit confusing. All of the places had various menus for the main languages. I learnt that Dag is a colloquial /casual word for goodbye.
THAT’S TOAST..
This was breakfast place for 4 mornings. I discovered overnight Bircher muesli & it was delicious, I had overnight oats before but this was better with fresh apple slices on the top, raspberries and blueberries. The menu is far from vegetarian but there are options to make up your own menu.
A charming building, open all day for breakfast.
Flamboyant grand old buildings In Burg Square -the soul of the city.
Some of the oldest buildings in Bruges, were built back in the Middle Ages. This Photo was taken from the top of a Museum. Inside we saw the 3D experience of medieval Bruges which was fantastic. I was literally hanging on to my seat – we were on a virtual a ship journey across choppy waters. Very realistic. We also visited a Witches museum and a Salvador Dali exhibition; as well as the inevitable Beer Museum.
The canals really keep the air crisp and clean, it makes a pleasant city to walk about. This pretty canal was a 5 minute walk from the place we were staying.
A country walk Bruges centre to Damme.
There are a few canals going through the city and one that goes all around it. The air feels very fresh. Walking out of the main centre to the country walk. e had followed the canal out of town, then crossed a very busy road, to get onto the canal leading to a long path towards Damme a small town.
Recently I have started taking a photograph when I come across a dead creature, I thought the bird looked quite beautiful.
On the country walk I came across this guy, deceased – no signs of anything lethal like a gun or an animal attack. I love wood pigeons purple and grey colours.
BLACK CLOUDS CREPT IN AND THERE WAS NO ESCAPE walking along Side of the Poplar trees, which weren’t quite big enough to protect us from rain.
The heavens opened half way on this ‘country walk’, a straight canal for about 5 miles, so half way down , you had to keep going, coming back we realised we could get the Paddle boat but only so far, then as we got of it to walk the remaining 3 miles the Sky’s opened again
what a picture. Get the easel out.
We got to Damme which was a smallish village, with a few bars, and cafes. At this point, it was a tough decision about the next move. There was a debate whether to walk back, or take the imaginary bus journey my partner had made up, or the real possibility of getting on this very slow paddle boat up stream. I was accused of being a pessimist when I predicted it would start raining as soon as we got off. It did and we got soaked for the 2nd time that day.
A day out at the beach
A short journey from Bruges (25 minutes) and we got to Knokke, just past some shipping ports. It had a smart continental style high street, with good shops and plenty of places to sit down and eat.
A day out at the seaside, so nice to feel the sun on our face after yesterdays downpour.
Greetings from a Belgian Seagull, who was very well behaved, unlike a Margate or Devon seagull…
The last day in Bruges
It was somewhat hectic. We had to vacate the building by 11am but our train wasn’t until 2pm,. The plan was thus, after eating breakfast at Toast (about a mile away from where we stayed and not open until 8.30am) it was a rush back, to pack the bags leave them outside in the hallway and back out to join the walking tour from 11-1pm. I’m planning on becoming a tour guide, & thought it was the least I could do., It probably would have been better doing that on the 1st or 2nd day.
The tour was interesting, but don’t ask me to repeat it verbatim. something about Napoleon developing street numbers and names, and where to drink beer and waffles in the main!!
I have finally signed up to the Tour Guide training course at Morley College Lambeth.
The research role is just about finished and I’m down to 2 days a week and not for too much longer, I will put the rambling aside for the next 6 months to focus on this and finding paid work .
Meanwhile back in London
London never ceases to amaze me, I met up with my new group of wannabe Lambeth Tour Guides at Waterloo station under the clock and one of the teachers took us on a how to guide people in London walks.
She discussed landmarks and things to look out for. I was surprised when we walked into the cut situated in Waterloo and came across The Anarchist Bookfair.
Corner of Leake Street, Waterloo, Lambeth.
Anarchy in the UK. You wouldn’t get owt like this in Bruges!
Until next time keep on you know what….
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