25 June 2006

Bruges Birthday Bash - 12-14 June 2006

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Hi all. We promised a new blog entry after our trip to sunny Bruges, and having had time to properly consider the (burp) experience, we are now ready to commit our experiences to cyber posterity.

We booked our tickets to Belgium on the Eurostar several months ago with a 2-for-1 offer that Maria cut out of the paper. Maria has been preparing for pensioner-hood by extracting every possible deal from the various rags here in London. So far we have had numerous £5, two-course meals, cheap holidays, a new watch, the tickets to Paris, and now the trip to Belgium. For me, Belgian culture is brewed by monks and goes well with salty bar snacks. Maria's interest lay more in the lace and chocolate. We managed to experience plenty of both during our time in Bruges.

Our adventure started at what is commonly described as an ungodly hour of the morning, as we needed to catch the first Eurostar from Waterloo at 6am. So we strapped on our backpacks for the first time in a while, swallowed some vegemite toast, and met the day (for there certainly weren't any people to meet at that time of the morning. We've noticed that British people aren't early risers. It might be because the sun is remarkably resistant to setting at this time of year.)

The trip to Brussels was lovely. We enjoyed the comfy seats and cabin messages in three languages. Arriving in Brussels, we changed train for the short journey to Bruges. When you take the Eurostar to Brussels, you can catch the train to any part of Belgium using your Eurostar pass. Thus we decided to make a serious survey of Belgian culture by visiting the medieval town of Bruges/Brugge.

We arrived in Bruges about 11am and strode confidently out of the train station. We have learnt during our travels that Maria has a very good sense of direction, but can't use a map, whereas I can find where I'm going perfectly when using a map, but have no real sense of direction (a compass is handy in this respect). Together we are a powerful force, as long as we know who is leading. In this instance, we walked a couple of hundred yards down the road before Maria realised that I hadn't consulted with a map and was in fact walking in exactly the wrong direction. After dodging a few bicycles, we reoriented ourselves and headed toward the lovely chiming of the carillon in the town square.

After checking into our hotel, the first order of business was lunch. We decided to have a typical Belgian lunch of frietjes vlaamse stoveriji (chips and meat gravy), which we ate sitting on the external windowsills of the Belfort. As the name may indicate, this is where the carillon is located and we enjoyed respite from the sun under its mighty shadow. Well, us and a hundred other tourists, all fighting for the limited windowsills. Maria has sharp elbows and quick reflexes, they come in handy in these situations.

After lunch we went for a long walk around Bruges. To give our walk some purpose, we decided to find a special piece of lace and this occupied our time as we weaved in and out of the hundreds of lace-shops that are located around Bruges. After several hours we decided that some refreshments were necessary, so we ducked into a licensed establishment and downed some essential vitamins and minerals. Well, Belgian beer is only brewed with natural ingredients... We also took the opportunity to watch Australia play Japan in their first game of the World Cup. Europe has Cup fever and so have we after that come from behind victory.

The game (and the hot afternoon sun) took its toll and we retired for a siesta. We awoke mid-evening, when it was still hot and very light, so we went in search of some dinner. We decided to avoid the touristy-looking restaurants and went north in search of some more authentic Bruges restaurants. We strolled along the canals and through a maze of streets but not a single food (or beer) establishment did we find. Hunger drove us back to the Grand'Place for a late dinner as the sun set around us (at 11pm). We had typically Flemish food – Maria had waterzooi and I had bugs bunny – all washed down with some typically Belgian beer (12%).

Tuesday dawned only slightly less hot than Monday (which turned out to be the hottest June 12th on record). It wasn't really our intention to rise with the sun, but the lovely carillon I mentioned earlier took no stock of the strength of the beer we enjoyed with dinner, and gave its rendition of Beethoven's 9th with unrestrained abandon. Giving up on sleep, we decided to take a cruise on the canals before all the tourist coaches arrived from Brussels. The cruise was a very relaxing way to start the day as we enjoyed the historic architecture and the incessant American small-talk. The guide was unintelligible in three languages and we took some lovely pictures of the church spires which dominate the Bruges skyline. Of particular note were the colourful array of flowers in the window boxes that seem to adorn every house.

After our cruise, we visited Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan,(the Half Moon Brewery). The Half Moon is the only brewery left in Bruges, and does guided tours of the brewery. Both the blond and the brown ale they made were absolutely stunning, and we learnt a great deal about the Belgian brewing tradition. The Belgians take their beer very seriously, evidenced by the tour guide's assertion that bottom fermenting beer (such as lager) at 5% was just table beer, for the children. Real beer is top fermenting (is brewed at a higher temperature). The monks brewed three types of beer. The normal beer which they themselves drank was a single. The pilgrims received a double (about 8%) and if the bishop came to visit he got a triple (about 12%). Having tried a few Trappist triples, I can now understand the attraction of a monastic life.

Following the tour, we found a nice shady spot in the garden of one of Bruges' many churches to enjoy a lunch 'borrowed' from the breakfast buffet at the hotel we were staying in. By this stage the mercury had risen to near Brisbanian levels, and we sought the cool and tranquil surroundings of one of the great churches in Bruges. The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) dates from 1220 and has a 122m tower, a truly stunning pulpit in carved wood, and the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, his only sculpture to leave Italy during his lifetime. The atmosphere was made all the holier by the raised voices of the nuns, whose devotions echoed soulfully around the buttressed arches as they may have done for 800 years.

The next part of our afternoon was spent in a futile search for a candle shop. Maria visited Bruges five years ago with her friend Paula and distinctly remembers a profusion of candle shops. They seem to have moved on in the intervening years, as we were unable to find a single one. We finally gave up on candles and visited the Sint-Salvatoreskathedraal. The organist was giving a recital on the pipe organ so we pulled up a pew to enjoy the cathedral's lovely acoustics. We took the opportunity to remove our shoes and enjoy the sensation of the cold stone floor beneath our feet. You could actually see the steam rising from my socks!

Next stop was some dinner washed down with another beer and then on the the pub for a beer before bed. The inevitable storm was brewing, and the view outside our hotel window was truly breathtaking. With two church spires lit up against the dark night sky, punctuated by bursts of lightning, it was a beautiful way to end a memorable day.

On Wednesday we took the train back to Brussels for a peak at the Grote'Markt before catching the Eurostar back to London. We didn't do much in Brussels, but upon Dave's recommendation, we enjoyed a mussel pot washed down with yet another Trappist beer in a backstreet where every restaurant seemed to specialise in mussels (and beer). We watched Spain play Ukraine and the Spanish victory unleashed a cacophony of horns and cheering. It seems that the way to celebrate the Spanish victory was to do laps of Brussels in a beaten-up Ford Prefect, hanging out the windows and waving flags. Strangely, this was our last memory of Brussels.

The trip home was uneventful and Thursday saw us back breaking rocks. Maria also managed to submit her thesis, so I bought her a bunch of flowers.

On June 17th, Maria went to the Trooping of the Colour which is part of the Queen's official birthday celebrations. That evening, we met up with my cousin Jacqui and her boyfriend, who were visiting from Italy. We had a lovely evening with them in Leicester Square. While there, I took some photos of the minis from 'The Italian Job' and the car from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', although we're not sure why they sitting in the middle of Leicester Square.

This weekend just gone, we met up with our friend Tad who has just returned to the UK from his trip around the world. Apart from that, we're looking for a new place to live, and we're generally enjoying the British summer – which is far hotter than we expected.

Best wishes to all and sundry, and we'll update again after our day out at the Festival of Speed in early July (Maria takes me to Bruges for my birthday, I take her to the hill-climb at Goodwood for her birthday. Sounds fair to me...).

Fletch's tip for new travellers

One thing that England seems to lack is light and mid strength beer. In Australia, the initiatives targeting drink driving have probably contributed to the popularity of lower alcohol beers. In Bruges, the problem has been tackled differently. You see very few cars in Bruges, and I can only assume that this is because, having had a few Trappist triples, its hard enough to remember whose feet your using let alone which car is yours.

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