Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Part 2

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melsea
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Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Part 2

#1

Post by melsea »

Bruges, Belgium.

17th May.

Woke at 7am got up at 7.30, breakfast in buffet upstairs. Went to meeting point for tour at 9.20, didn't have to wait long before my sticker number & colour was called. I was on the first of the three coaches doing the Bruges on your own. I had looked up on how to get to Bruges by train before coming but found there seems to be less trains on a Saturday than during the week & although I would normally try to do DIY as much as possible, this time I had to succumb. When I got on the bus all the seats had a local map and a business card that had a mobile number linked to the tour company, we were given this for emergency use only, this is in addition to the one that is printed on the front of the daily Horizon paper we have on board. At just before 9.45 we were off. The ladies name was Ruth, she told us about her country and how it is made up of different regions who have there own dialect and languages and depending where you grew up or live depended on which order you learn which language. The languages are Flemish, French, German and English. In each of these regions you would be expected to learn 3 languages one of which will be English as a third a language. You have to admire the Belgium's for doing that.
She explained how big the port of Zeebrugge is and it certainly stretches a long way along the coast. Having been to many ports that are also container ports she taught me something I did not know. You invariably notice lots of containers in ports and l often wondered what was in them. Apparently if you see a stack of them away from the area where they transport them to a ship and there are 3 or more stacked up it means they are empty, they will only be full if it is less. I didn't know that fact, always learning something.
We arrived in Bruges at 10.15. We were walked further into town to where we would meet at the end of our time there.
One of things I did not pack and was only made aware that I needed to pack it was a cable charge for the OH ipad, he brought with him his old one and it has a different connection to the new ones. So feeling somewhat guilty of this as I did say I would be packing the chargers so my fault for not checking. Anyway when I asked the lady from the bus where there was somewhere where I could buy a lead for the Apple iPad. She fortunately was able to tell me on the map she had provided. So while walking through the lovely streets of Bruges and looking in a couple a shops a long the way I found the store. And believe me I am glad I asked her as I know I would never have found it on my own as there seems to be two types of shops in plentiful numbers, clothes and chocolates!!
Having bought my cable which was in the main square I made my way across to the Belfry and queued for about 25 minutes to buy a ticket to go up to the top. This cost €8 for people aged between 24 to 64 those outside of that age bracket pay €6. There are 366 steps to the top and very fortunately there are a few places to stop and rest. Some of those places have small exhibits to do with the whole tower. One area had the music mechanism which looked like a huge drum that you get in music boxes, of course this one was a thousand times bigger!. The bell chimes every quarter of the hour and in between those quarters a little musical tune plays. You can wait to hear this while you catch your breath to continue up. When I finally got to the top the view was spectacular and even more so since we had wall to wall sunshine with good temperature to match. I stayed for around half a hour and was there when the clock struck 1pm it was lovely to hear the bells and the musical tune that came afterwards to. Then it was time to descend the stairs which I forgot to mention were of a spiral style. At the start of the stairs they were the old stone type some of which had eroded over time but at some point they were made of heavy dark wood which made for easier stepping onto. Going down was a lot easier than going down. It was definitely worth the wait and the ascent. My next tourist thing to do was one of the boat rides that the lady from the coach mentioned we should do if we were able to get on one. I happened to go to station number 1, bought my ticket which was €7.60 for the half hour journey. I didn't have to wait long, about 10 minutes at most. It was a very enjoyable boat ride along the canal, another worthwhile thing to do at very little cost. I had not appreciated that I waited so little time for my boat ride as others had to wait more than an hour. I did notice while on the boat that some of the boat stations had long queues, some more than others.
What to do next? I stopped by somewhere to get something to eat on the move. I looked in a couple of chocolate shops and I must confess I bought some, some for us and some as presents for family and friends.
It wasn't long before it was time to go back to the place we were dropped off to meet up and take us back to the ship. Allocated time was 4pm, as there seemed to me a lot of us there already the lady counted us and found we were all there so we walked back to bus for the journey back. It was I have to say a most enjoyable day and certainly a place I would visit again. As we were pulling into the port gates the lady said we were very quiet, I think many were still tired from the journey yesterday and having a port the very next day meant they were beginning to tire along with having a very long day. We had one lady who was with her husband that had a motorised wheelchair. I had a chat with her and ask how did she get on with the cobbles, Bruges is full of them. She said it was very bumpy, a bit of a challenge but well worth it as it was a beautiful place and best bit was that it was sunny.
When we almost ready to sail away the Captain said he has never been to Bruges where is has not rained so we were very lucky with the weather. Bearing in mind this was the weekend where Britain was about to have its own heat wave!

This evening was a quiet affair, one of our table couples went to the East restaurant, so our table of 8 although so far it's only been 6 was now a table of four tonight. Good conversation and good food.


So that's our first port out of the way, two sea days then two ports in a row both of which I have never been to before Gydnia, Poland & Klaipeda, Lithuania.

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Jan Rosser
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#2

Post by Jan Rosser »

Mel you've brought back lovely memories of my trip to Bruges last year on the Eurostar :D

Looking forward to the rest of your adventures :thumbup:
Janis

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barney
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#3

Post by barney »

Lovely to read about Bruges melsea
thanks

I'm taking my lovely wife there, just for the day on 29th June as a birthday treat.
She doesn't know anything about it so it should be a lovely surprise as she's never been.
Luckily we're near the Chunnel.

She loves 'moules avec frites' so no doubt that will be on the agenda.
Plus the compulsary boat trip
Empty vessels .. and all that

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Dancing Queen
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#4

Post by Dancing Queen »

I love Bruges and have been several times unfortunately only ever in winter but wrap up warm and you can still have a wonderful time.

I always remember our first visit and not being sure what to expect knowing that a lot of the so called 'booze cruises' go there so I was delighted to find such a charming town with so much to see and do and of course the CHOCOLATE :thumbup: :thumbup:

Just as an aside for anyone who is interested a taxi into Bruges from the port costs approx 100 Euro return ( most are 8 seater ) I joined a roll call on cruisecritic and teamed up with 2 other couples in advance to share, I was a bit apprehensive doing this as it is something I've never done before but it worked really well and saved us all money.
Jo

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oldbluefox
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#5

Post by oldbluefox »

Apparently the chocolates have to be eaten within 3 weeks................................ as if!!!

Lovely to read of Bruges. It brought back many memories.

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Belle53
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#6

Post by Belle53 »

Great reports, really enjoying them, I love the sound of Bruges, looking forward to reading more.


cruisin_duo
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#7

Post by cruisin_duo »

Enjoying your reports very much. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your cruise.

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david63
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#8

Post by david63 »

... and the three ships and heatwave :wave:

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Dancing Queen
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of 3 boats & a Baltic Heatwave...Par

#9

Post by Dancing Queen »

Yes come on Mel don't keep us in suspense :crazy:
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