Friday 24th May 2019

Rain had been forecast, the day before even Captain Charisma warned of the not great weather forecast, however upon arriving the skies were blue and once again we were treated to a day of glorious sunshine.

A very early start meant we were up, ready, had breakfast and made our way to the Royal Theatre, floor 3, to meet for our Walking Tour and Free Time excursion at just after 7am. Perhaps with a slightly grumpier Vikki then Steve!

Despite being group number 2 we weren’t the second group out but eventually it was our turn. There was a moment when we wondered if they actually knew where they were going as we were lead down a corridor of bedrooms and out an alternative exit!

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We boarded the coach and were pleasantly surprised that the journey was around 20mins, not the hour we had thought it was going to be. The tour guide didn’t stop talking the whole journey (in fact the whole day), what he didn’t know about Belgium and Bruges clearly isn’t worth knowing.

After arriving, and the guide accepting that perhaps it was actually his microphone that wasn’t working, rather than all 24 of us doing something wrong with our headsets the tour got started. We spent a very nice couple of hours walking round the streets of Bruges, it was all very quiet but that turned out to be because everything was shut and nothing opened until 10am – including the three sets of toilets that the guide stopped at along the way!

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At 10am, the sun was shining and we walked past a very big queue to our pre-booked boat tour. The boat trip was very picturesque and we got to see the canal side of most of where we’d walked in the morning. As well as the views of the city we saw swans, ducks, baby ducklings and went under a lot of low bridges, including one which required everyone to duck as we went through it!

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Next we walked to where we would be meeting for lunch and had a free hour of time. We were both tired and Vikki was really flagging so, when in Belgium, chocolate was the obvious choice of a pick-me-up. A yummy little mixed selection box of 16 chocolates did the job perfectly.

Although Vikki may have had a few more than Steve…

Realising we needed some euros we went on an ATM hunt, discovering there are surprisingly few cash points in Bruges. When we finally found one it didn’t like Steve’s card but at least he didn’t crash the whole ATM like in Brunei and second time lucky it worked.

With everything now open the streets were filling up and very busy, including lots of bikes pinging bells (which people tended to ignore) and horse and carts which people also tended to ignore but which were far less patient than the cyclists! Apparently there hasn’t ever been an accident with a horse and cart versus a pedestrian but given the few near misses we saw I’m not so sure about that fact!

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Just before lunch we had a walk round an area where you had to be silent, not part of a large group and stay off the grass – the school trip group that was also there clearly didn’t read the signs!

Lunch was an experience. An Italian restaurant, not a Belgian one, and no food choice – Vikki’s idea of a nightmare. It got off to a bad start when we arrived to a tuna salad starter, although because Steve informed the waiter that his wife(!) can’t eat fish it was swapped for a non tuna salad. Fully expecting the main course to be something with cheese which Vikki also wouldn’t eat we were surprised to find it was completely cheese-less…instead is was chicken breast so dry it stuck to the roof of your mouth covered in mushroom sauce.

As we both left hungry there was nothing for it but to go and get waffles for pudding. We decided on waffle fries and sliced strawberries instead of one big waffle, which were delicious but not quite sure a sliced strawberry is value for money at 1.50 euros…

After waffles we enjoyed a beer and rose wine in the sun in the square and of course we couldn’t leave without some souvenir shopping and the all important chocolate to take home.

Armed with chocolate bears for the girls and truffles for the mums we headed back to the group to walk to the coach.

Despite having someone different leading the group back, in the wrong direction, we made it to the bus meeting point on time…to discover that the bus wasn’t there. We watched all the other groups head off back to the ship with no idea where our coach was.

Eventually it arrived very late and we all got on and headed back towards the ship, arriving 15 minutes after the time we were all meant to be back on board but thankfully the ship was still there!

A very stressful end to a very nice day.

As fun as it would have been, at 50 euros, we decided against a ride in a tourist flattening horse and cart and unfortunately due to lack of time and big queues we didn’t manage to climb the 366 steps to the top of the Belfort bell tower however we still had a fantastic time and suspect we will be back for a weekend one day.