In Bruges

Recently I was at my mums house, my brother Si was also there and he told us about "mini cruises" whereby you could take a ferry to a chosen northern European city overnight, which would then take you back again the following day, he also mentioned how there was a deal on where 2 people could go on one for the not so princely sum of £75.

As it turned out Si was so well informed on matters of mini cruising because he had been on one before and had been looking to go on another at some point near his birthday, this time probably to Bruges, unfortunately it seemed that no-one else had any available holidays remaining to use to join him on this trip, I asked if that was an invitation, as it turned out it was.

This would be my first trip abroad without Rachael for over 5 years, I had a decision to make, a very important decision, one that would potentially shape things to come, that decision was obviously: What colour pin was I going to use for this trip when I added it to the map? Would I have to start a whole new colour or would an existing one suffice? Green and Blue were out, they are for trips with specific individuals, what about red? Madrid in 2007 remained red when I met up with and stayed with Si, how is this any different? Well it is extremely different, I would be going with him to Bruges, not meeting him on one of the stops during a single trip, to indicate in colour terms that I went alone would be a complete lie, what about purple then? That was used once in 2009 to indicate that I went with my family, Si is family, could I use purple for this trip? Yes. Yes I definitely could.

The title of the post on the other hand was never realistically up for debate.

So, on a Tuesday afternoon, we set off on the road to Hull, or rather we set of to my house to collect my passport as I had seemingly forgotten you needed one to leave the country and that they're not just for plane journeys, who knew?

I had never travelled anywhere by ferry, having usually opted for air or land based modes of transport, but it is quite enjoyable, the boat takes about 15 hours to do a journey a plane could do in about 1 hour, but the ferry is a lot less stressful and you get a tiny bunk-bed cabin in which to sleep at night. It is a lot like booking into a floating hotel what with the resident entertainers and the expensive food (so THAT's how they make the money then).

Except of course you can't walk outside until the morning, most hotels would struggle to drum up business with that sort of policy.

The morning after setting off from Hull, we landed in Zeebrugge, where we were transferred by coach to the non "Zee" Brugge (Or Bruges to us English speaking types). We were dropped on a nondescript road across a bridge from a park at the edge of the city centre.

It's only a small place and is centred  around the square, which was in the process of being turned into a Christmas market with an ice rink, we were a bit too early, so it was just a collection of sheds with a large white rectangle in the middle.

I remember quite enjoying the architecture in Brussels when I was there, not for any sort of artistic merit it might have (though I'm sure it does) but because of how odd it seems, often seeming  as though  the buildings have just been tacked on to each other as neighbouring buildings seem to be so different, it didn't seem as pronounced  in Bruges, but it is still noticeable, like in this photo I took from the top of the clock tower.

The "Manneken Pis" in Brussels  only added to the impression I had of Belgium, but a little pissing boy seems completely normal compared to this fountain. Now I know we have to suspend reality slightly when we're looking at a fountain with a mermaid in it, but the projectile lactation seems a step too far, why did the water need to be coming from there? At least the pissing boy was doing something biologically possible, mermaids are supposed to be women from the waist up and I don't think women can do that (not to self, confirm detail with a woman). Also the water pouring from her mouth seems uncomfortable in itself, someone should help her!

Our day included a museum, a clock tower climb and a canal boat trip (as we had apparently not had enough time on a boat already) before we returned in the late afternoon to the coach taking us back to the ferry.

The journey home was much like the journey there, since it was in the same vessel, doing the same journey in reverse and we were staying in the same cabin room.

Though I did remember to take a photo of my sat-nav on the way back as it turns out that if you're far enough away from a road, rather than getting confused and assuming you are on the nearest road, it just shows where you are in the world, so when on the boat, it shows you floating around in the sea, on setting the view to 2d, I could see exactly where we were and how fast we were travelling. My favourite part has to be the instruction at the bottom: "Go to nearest road" It isn't going to concern itself with how I came to be floating around in the sea or even how I am going to get back out of this predicament, "Just return yourself to a road, then I will help you again, until then you're on your own".