So today we went to the Saturday Market in Bruges that we had heard about the first day we got here. It turned out to be nothing special although there was an interesting variety of live poultry on offer if you’re into that kind of thing. We didn’t stay long as it’s really not a favourite pastime of mine wandering round markets.

Earlier this morning I shaved off my beard to try to make the heat a bit more bearable. It didn’t make a lot of difference if I’m honest.

This will be a really short entry for the day as we didn’t do much of note.

Lynne and I are at the end of our first week retired after 50 years or so of more or less continuous work. It still feels slightly surreal and we are both struggling to get to grips with the idea that we don’t have to think about returning to work. I have to say I left work with decidedly mixed emotions, leaving a group of workmates who I’d come to like enormously so leaving wasn’t quite the joy I expected it to be! I’m sure Lynne feels exactly the same way too.

Anyway we’re off to Ypres tomorrow which is kind of a last minute decision. So till then tarah for now!

Our first full day in Bruges. After a great nights sleep we slowly emerged to a world that has no right to be as hot as it is right now! Bruges is suffering the same as the rest of Europe with parched brown grass along with unnaturally high temperatures. Whilst I know we Brits are renowned for complaining about the weather and I’m reluctant to give in to that particular stereotype, it does take some of the fun out of exploring a new city while you’re dodging into shade at every opportunity to save your old bald head from frying in the heat!

After saying goodbye to our new friends Martin and Sue who were moving on to Ypres today, we got the bus and went into Bruges centre. For me this was a location scouting trip to check out what I would want to photograph later this evening.

Bruges is an absolutely beautiful city and as mentioned in my previous blog we were impressed with how spotlessly clean it is. It’s definitely one of those places where every corner turned reveals more sights to marvel at. I heard someone in passing say it’s called the Venice of the north and I can see why. It has canals with tourist boats everywhere and with this weather there’s even a whiff of the drains every now and then. Yeah, just like Venice!

We stopped off and had Belgian waffles accompanied by a beer. Never had Belgian waffles before (unbelievable I know!) and they were delicious. Great service and a free lesson in Belgian language from the young guy serving us. Actually he was good enough to point out that I was pronouncing Hoegaarden (beer) wrong.

Anyway we wandered around and I found my location for photography. I’d like to say it’s something original but actually it’s an iconic shot seen probably millions of times before but I didn’t let that stop me shooting it anyway. My photography is always for my benefit alone so I don’t worry too much about whether or not it’s been done before.

As I write I’ve just read through my first blog and realised that in one place I’ve spelt  Bruce instead of Bruges in relation to how clean the city is. How embarrassing, I’ll have to sack my proof reader now!

Back to-day 2, This evening we went back into Bruges only this time we walked. It’s about 2 miles and took us some 50 minutes. Is that a long time? How long does it take normal people to walk 2 miles? Not a clue really but the seemingly long time might be explained by me stopping to take photographs every 5 minutes. We found my preferred location but it was way too early. The plan was to photograph it in the blue hour with the buildings lit up. The above image was the result. Whilst waiting for the right light we sat outside a nearby bar and had a couple of beers. Why do we always manage to sit next to the gobshite English guy who thinks it’s ok to use the f word every 2 minutes. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned that way, I definitely think there’s a time and a place!

The second image in today’s blog is of a huge whale made entirely from 5 tons of plastic taken from the Pacific Ocean. The project was for the 2018 Bruges Triennial. For some reason they decided to call it Skyscraper. I know plastic in the oceans is kind of a big deal these days but it really hits home when you see something on this scale!

Later we walked back to camp not getting in till after midnight. I find it amazing to walk through the dark streets of a strange city without feeling uncomfortable or a hint of any danger. I would think twice about doing that these days back home in Birmingham!

So, signing off for now. Another day in Bruges tomorrow.

This morning we left Canterbury where we had stayed at the park and ride. I wonder if Canterbury is the only town in the UK that caters for motorhomes in this way. Either way its a great idea. An area where motorhomes can stay the night with limited facilities for the very reasonable fee of £7. A great stopover on the way to Dover

We had a really good nights rest after the previous few days were spent running round trying to get everything needed for the trip. Suffice it to say that every cubic inch of space is now filled with everything from tea bags to toilet rolls!

Leaving Canterbury we went off in search of LPG. With no clear idea of how much gas we had used on previous trips we wanted to fill up so as to start off in Europe with as much as possible. To fill up in Europe you have to use various adaptors and we’ve never even filled up in the UK yet. So we headed off to the local Morrisons which online was promised to have LPG. Yeah right, Lynne asked about it and they said the nearest they knew of was in Faversham. With no idea of where Faversham was we set off for Dover.

Lynne went online and found a place in Dover that had LPG (we hoped). Long story short, they did have LPG but having followed the instructions it appeared the pump didn’t work. Eventually we had to use a different pump and that did work but holy shit it was slow. It must have taken ten minutes whilst watching the clock nervously because we were 5 or so minutes away from check in time for the ferry.

Thankfully we made it to the port within 5 minutes and went through passport control where the Customs officer waved us through without looking at our passports. Boarding the ferry was painless enough and soon we were on top deck listening to dozens of car alarms going off as the ferry left Dover. We did some shopping onboard and couldn’t resist 6 bottles of wine for £20.

I don’t know quite what I expected but the people on the glorious Calais beaches looked as though there had never been any problems with unwanted immigrants, then again maybe they were the unwanted immigrants! So at 1.30pm we were on the road for the short drive to Bruge. Our first impression of Bruge as we drove through was, where’s all the litter and crap. Coming from Birmingham we are always conscious of the rubbish strewn all over the place. It really is something I think we should all be ashamed of! Even taking into account that whenever we travel I’m always hit with “other mans grass” syndrome we couldn’t help but be impressed by how clean the place was. The weather helps, it must have been in the high 20s as we arrived at the campsite.

We were soon settled in our space and talking to the neighbours, a really nice Welsh couple, Martin and Sue from Cardiff. They’d just had a call from home to say it had rained all day in Cardiff. Well it is Wales after all. Martin seemed to think they had to suffer the rain to provide us in Birmingham with water. Good to see there’s still a (good-natured) rivalry between the Welsh and the English!

Having decided to go into Bruges to have a look round, we stood at a bus stop for 10 minutes unsure whether or not we were on the right side of the road or not. After a while we decided to go and stock up on beer instead. It was a short walk to a huge Carrefour where they only seemed to stock Belgian beers (who’d have thought?) Lynne bought some weird Belgian Lemon and Lime flavoured beer and I settled for Corona which is kind of playing safe because I’ve never really liked Belgian beers! Anyway enough of my waffling about shopping (boring). We spent an uneventful evening stressing over painfully slow internet whilst sweating like a pig, well I do most other things like a pig so why not? 🐷

So that’s it for my first blog, there are no photos because I didn’t take any yet. I said to a few people before we left that I would only post a blog if there was something interesting to say and reading back through this first blog I see I was wrong! But hey what the hell, it’ll go down as a record of what happened for our benefit if no-one else’s!