Out of Bruges

Been too busy to sit down and blog, so I'm snatching some time now while E plays with his Mozart Cube before bed. I've been concentrating on my novel (man, that still sounds pretentious) because I've finished the rough draft (68k words) and am now revising it with a view to expanding the word count to around 80k.

Anyhow, the second part of our trip to Bruges went well. I think the highlight for me was the horse-drawn carriage ride we took. It was 30 minutes long and took us around the inner city. The coachman was knowledgeable and gave us good commentary.


3/4 of the way through, we stopped at a designated resting place so that the horse could have a break. There was a great fountain there which we discovered while letting E have a quick leg stretch.

After the ride, it was beginning to rain, so we found a tearoom to shelter in for awhile. E had some of B's apple pie. Sorry for the blurryness.


Meanwhile, I had the best hot chocolate ever.



The blurry picture doesn't do it justice. Basically, this treat consisted of a cup of hot milk. On top of that was a shallow dish of pure chocolate. Beside the dish (not pictured) was a glob of whipped cream. And chocolate wafers to dish. There was also a lump of sugar. But really, who'd need sugar with all of the above?!

Bruges has such awesome church bells sounding at different times of the day. I know I'm a sucker for pretty-sounding bells and carillons, but I always enjoy visiting places with lots of loud church bells.

The Eurostar home was uneventful. E fell asleep on the train from Bruges via Ghent to Brussels, then stayed asleep for part of the journey on Eurostar. Funfact: The Eurostar goes 186 miles per hour. And it's MUCH preferable to flying, unless you enjoy cavity searches and cramped seats. As for us, we were offered champagne and an enjoyable meal both ways, and the seats were more than comfortable for a just-under 2 hour journey. The train to Bruges from Brussels was about an hour and was quite pleasant too - a double-decker train. It'd be nice if the UK got some of those but I've never seen one in service here.

Lastly, a picture of me (in the Chocolate Museum) so that B stops nagging me about posting my own mug on my own blog.


I have a few more photos that I'll try and stick up here and there, plus a couple of videos. As for now, it's time to put the sprog into bed.