Bruges Christmas Markets

Yes, here at last is my promised post to tell you about my trip to Bruges (pronounced "Brooj") with Amanda and Kathryn. For those Austin Powers fans among you, you may recall Bruges is in fact Dr Evil's birthplace (I kept hearing Fi's voice in my head quoting "that's where Daddy's from" in her best Dr Evil impersonation...) but strangely enough we saw no signs of this on our visit. Instead we found an absolutely gorgeous, medieval little town with colourful old buildings and a huge, open market square filled with Christmas stalls, an ice skating rink, and lots of people.We took the ferry across from Dover to Calais, with Kath's car on board. The trip takes around an hour fifteen and was fairly uneventful, except for the rainy weather which resulted in a choppy English channel and a queasy Bec and Kath. The drive through France to Belgium was very straightforward, especially with the assistance of Kath's new Sat Nav which constantly told us where to go in a very pleasant and polite English accent.

After checking in to our hostel we walked into the old town centre, huddling under umbrellas as it was still raining. The rain was not heavy but was annoying, more so as we only had two umbrellas between the three of us, which is never a good idea. To avoid a fight breaking out, we took shelter in one of the many restaurants in the square for some lunch. French onion soup and chips warmed us up nicely, and when we emerged an hour later the weather had thankfully cleared up and there was a beautiful clear blue sky which made everything look that much better!

So, three girls on their own in a European city just before Christmas could mean only one thing... shopping!!!! To be honest the Christmas markets themselves were actually a little disappointing. There weren't all that many stalls set up, mainly due to the large ice skating rink taking up most of the square, and about 75% of the stalls were food and drink related (not that we complained too much about that!) But we were after presenty items and little cutesy Christmas souvenirs, the kind that would later seem absolutely pointless but would nevertheless be excellent mementos of our weekend in Bruges. So we hit the main shopping strips instead and were soon laden down with bags of goodies, most of them consisting of beer or chocolate in true Belgian style.

Back to the hostel to drop off our plunder, then it was out for a yummy dinner washed down with the obligatory glass of local beer (actually I was the only one of the three who felt beer was obligatory... and I don't even drink beer!) Bruges was even more magical at night, the Christmas lights combining with the illuminated buildings to spectacular effect.



Next morning began with Belgian waffles and ended with a horse drawn carriage ride through the city. In short, the perfect weekend!