Bruges

Went to Bruges before Christmas! Forgot to write about it. Me an Ashley went, there was meant to be another chap coming but the fool didn't check his passport.

We went from Hull from King George dock on a Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company ferry, The Pride of York. We had a four man room twas roomy and had storage beds. There was a booze shop so got whisky but couldn't pick it up till the morning we arrived at Zebrugge. So we had to settle on the overpriced bar on the ship and watched the band, and I didn't win a blasted thing in the casino. It was so bad I was considering.... Lager. That was a long night! Couldn't talk as it was so ruddy loud.

So we arrived in Zebrugge, the first sight that greets us are a row of windmills. The Europeans seem to be obsessed with them, every time I am on the continent they are the first things that greet you. We hopped on a coach and headed towards Bruges. The trip was somewhat unremarkable. But then we arrived at the drop off point, which was totally different from the years before. Eventually a taxi was found, after many simply driving past us to what we later realised was an unsigned taxi rank. Despite it being a Merc, the thing was shaking apart due to the small mountains on the road also known aas cobbles.

We got to Markt square, too early for lunch/Christmas market or alas, beer so I had a cunning plan, to see the closest attraction. Twas the Basilica of the Holy Blood, a church with baby Jesus blood in it.

Then after we found out to see the 'blood' we had to wait for a veneration (not that bothered about it) we went for a very expensive hot chocolate twas nice. We asked the waiter where the best beer shop was, we were in luck, a five minute walk away. It was heaven. The walls were lined with bottles of all sorts of Belgian beer. 60 euros later and:

Not all of that was from that beer shop though. It was then approaching opening time for a bar I heard about on Trip Adviser, callede Staminee De Garre. Fabelled for their beer, De Garre, also legendary for being an arse to find. Luckily I am good at finding things so it was found almost immediately, after going into the obligatory chocolatier, and Bruges gift shop, which sold beer. We were there about 15 minutes before opening time, so we were stood above something which resembled (and smelt) like a medieval open sewer.

So after a while standing about the door opened, and we were greeted by a tiny ground floor, very olde worldy. We sat down and at this point we noticed there was an upstairs which seemed equally tiny, be warned if you want to visit this place, come at opening time, 12:00ish. It fills up within 15 minutes of opening! We then ordered 2 De Garres. We had hit the holy grail of Belgian ale. Very strong, but lovely, 11% Belgian blonde ale perfection. Came with cheese too.

After another 'halve' we had had enough of this potent stuff, but wanted to take some home. We were in luck, they do sell bottles of it... Very big bottles!

So That was De Garre!

We went to the market, purchased Christmas presents, had a lovely cup of mulled wine, then we were peckish. My prior Trip Advisor research paid off again in a big way. We went to a beer restaurant called Cambrinus. My Lord. The beer list was as thick as may arm and they had a three course dinner where everything was made with beer, cheesy croquettes, beef stew and creme brulee, all with a different beer in. Twas properly good. The cripple loos however,  tad treacherous there was an open door to oblivion in it. But anyway, we struggled to decide on a beer so we ordered the one advertised on the placesmats, Hopus an actually bitter Belgian ambery ale, strong again (hard to find anything under 8%) was lovely again!

We found yet another beer shop, you can probably imagine the outcome. We decided to get a bus back to the train station as it is quite obvious which one to get, it says station. The buses are weird, they had two doors. There is a good bar in Bruges train staion, sells Corsendonk and Tempelier amongst others but they had put a night club next to the bar and it was open! This is at 15:00, so we are sat in the bar , which is shaking from the music next door, the club being full of annoyingly trendy 15/16 year old Belgian children drinking cherry lambic!

That was Bruges! We got back to the ship for a lie down and a tot of whisky and had another agonizing night of 'entertainment'. But I won at bingo. It did however, take 4 and a half hours for the ship to dock due to silly fog, and the lock doors at the port fell off their hinges so we used a different dock. Still broken I think! And by the way, God Save the Queen: