Julie and John’s Excellent Adventure – Part 8 – Bruges - Brugge

Canal cruise

We arrive around 6pm after another luxury train ride - but this time the ridiculous 42 euro per person reservation fee only gets us a snack, drink and coffee on the 1 hour ride from Paris to Brussels. Then we have to stand for the next hour on the packed train from Brussels to the quaint city of Bruges.

Canal cruise

My friend Caitlyn joins us the next morning from her home in the Netherlands and we wander through the Wednesday morning market on the square with the church claiming to have Jesus Christ's blood in a vial and onto the main square with its towering (and leaning) belfry - only 422 steps up for a great view - luckily it is foggy so we don't have to climb! We decide to get into the local spirit and have some fries and mayonaise for lunch before wandering through the chocolate shops - for presents of course - and then finding the canal boats and going for a cruise around, past houses, gardens and ducks.

Bruges by night

Trouble at de Garre

Then the trouble starts - a delicious Leffe brown before wandering back to the main square and finding a restaurant for dinner - out to make some money after we insisted on the advertised 16 euro 3 course menu, we ask for a large Leffe brown and he brings us ONE LITRE each. NOT the type of beer you drink by the litre!! After dinner we say goodnight to mum and dad and head to De Garre - a gorgeous little local pub with delicously sweet 12 percent beer, served with little cubes of cheese and extremely dangerous. Midway through our second one, they are closing and we somehow end up staying on, chatting to the 3 bar men about who knows what, then managing to stagger home and discover it is 1.30am...........we swear we were only there for an hour!!! Belgian beer is dangerous.

Flanders Fields cemetary

Flanders Fields - 15 year old soldier

Not happy when the alarm goes off at 7.30am for the Flanders Fields tour........after quite a struggle we make it to the meeting point and it is an excellent day. We head out into the countryside and visit various monuments and cemeteries while hearing about how World War 1 started and key events in the area. It makes me sad to see so many graves with "unkown" marked on the headstone.......the average age is 20 years old and I see one of a boy of only 15. We hear how a truce was called in the trenches on the first christmas and soldiers from each side played football and exchanged gifts. We learn about the chemical warfare and how live artillery is still discovered each year when the farmers plough the fields. We finish in the town of Ieper (completely wiped out, along with all other towns in the area and rebuilt after the war) and lighten things up with some beglian waffles complete with Nutella and ice cream. Heavy stuff but highly recommended