Bruges

Birthday boy

I started the day trying to be nice by making Hisham a delicious birthday breakfast but when I turned the kettle and the oven on at the same time I was met with silence: the fridge stopped whirring, the jug stopped boiling and the lights all turned off. Apparently that's a thing in Europe and you shouldn't have two kitchen appliances on at the same time. Who knew? Thankfully the gas and internet were still working so I carried on making breakfast on the stove top while emailing our host to figure out where the fuse box was. Hisham and his brother-in-law searched high and low but it was nowhere to be found and I had tried in vain to call the three contact numbers we had been left but of course none of those worked either and so we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally just as we were about to leave the house for the day I refreshed my emails one final time and, at last, a reply! She informed us that there was a basement we needed to explore and a box to find and so we went on a bit of an adventure. 

down the stairs... 

.. and in to the deep dark depths of the building

When we first went down the stairs we only had the light from our cellphones and it was like something straight out of a very scary movie. There were dark openings everywhere and no way to tell if they were filled with fugitives or skeletons or wild animals or any number of equally terrifying things but I put my brave boots on and ventured into the unknown. You'll all be pleased to know that I found nothing except empty spaces and fuse boxes, and that the strange noises I didn't tell you about so as not to overwhelm you with Scary were just water running through the pipes. We quickly located the right box and flicked the obvious switch and voila: all was well with the world. It was time to head off on our next adventure for the day.

These two are definitely Google photos.

Bruges! The place I've been Pinteresting and dreaming of and Googling about for weeks and finally, finally we were on our way. Bruges has beautiful buildings and spectacular waterways, much like Venice, and of course is the focal point of the movie In Bruges. The journey there took double the estimated hour because I kept disbelieving the GPS (a lesson I never did quite learn fully), but finally we arrived and once again we were directed into the middle of town. This time there wasn't parking available anywhere so we cruised around the canals and the maze of one-way back streets for about an hour before eventually finding a parking spot right around the corner from the city square. 

Some of the streets were almost as narrow as this. Hisham and I could have easily
reached out and touched the buildings on either side of the car as we drove past.

It was that point that we realised we had forgotten both the pushchair and Adam and my warm clothes. Major fail. Luckily Bruges is small so Adam was able to walk anywhere we needed, and we shuffled clothes around so everybody was somewhat warm. Here's Adam in his getup of the day:

He's decided this is how he wants to pose when he says cheese now

We wandered around the tiny town square and checked out the Christmas markets and the surrounding streets. 

Adam was enthralled by the horses

and I loved the gorgeous buildings

And then it was time to conquer the infamous Bruges Belfry

all 366 steps of it

It was 3:55 when I managed to convince the guys to climb with me and I knew the bells chimed on the hour so we began a mad dash up the steps - every man for himself - only to be sorely disappointed five minutes later to hear the chime from the middle of the stairwell. I trudged up the remaining steps to the balcony of the bells and caught my breath while checking them out in all their impressive display. 

These were the spacious stairs about half way up.

The entire journey to the top is on dizzying swirling stairwells which snake up level after level while getting steadily narrower so as to increase your claustrophobia level. And then you emerge like a jack-in-the-box at the top and are met with a spectacular vista which makes the whole trip worthwhile. Note to those who may attempt such a climb: the entry fee is pretty steep (get it? get it?) at 8€, and the last entry is at something like 4:30pm. So go in winter like we did (totally planned, I promise) to miss the crowds and see a spectacular sunset. 

Bruges from the belfry at sunset

Soon after finally catching my breath (the others had arrived far ahead of me), we were all beautifully serenaded by the bells - apparently they go every quarter hour.. so much for our rush fifteen minutes earlier. We hung out enjoying the view for a while and then headed down in time to see the bells go at 4:30 which is also definitely worth the effort.

Town square with christmas market and ice skating rink

After warming up with waffles we headed home on the long straight across the country to Brussels and our lovely warm apartment. I spent the evening packing yet again (pack light, people! Pack light!) and we all mentally prepared ourselves for the epic road trip we would be embarking upon in the morning. 

Yes Adam is wearing my cardy. It was part of our clothes-sharing experiment.