Beautiful Bruges

When I was a child, we often went on holiday to visit relatives in Denmark, and that journey always started with the ferry trip from Harwich to Esbjerg. Childhood memories are strong, and going on a ferry always feels exciting and… well… like a holiday!

James and I boarded the P&O ferry at Hull on Wednesday, on a blustery, sunny evening for our mini cruise. As the ship leaves Hull, it has to go through a lock. The lock is about the size of the ship – huge – and the ship fits in it snugly while leaving only a couple of inches either side. It’s a fascinating process to watch and takes about an hour to leave the Port of Hull.

We splashed out on a cabin with a window. Cabins without windows are very disorientating, especially when you wake the next day and it doesn’t feel like morning because you can’t see any daylight. The cabins are very compact and bijou. Years ago on a short trip to Denmark with mum and Lydia (aged 3), Liddi walked into the small cabin and said, “are we in the lift?”. We also decided to stay a night in a Bruges hotel, to give us 2 days sightseeing, rather than just a few hours.

We arrived in Zebrugge early on Thursday morning, and took the short coach drive into Bruges. We headed into the narrow, cobbled streets, and found our hotel tucked just behind the main central square. In such an ancient, historic city it was also lovely to be in such a contemporary, smart, sleek hotel with a cute balcony. I would definitely recommend Martin’s Hotel.

We headed out to see some sights and started with the famous boat trip while the sun was shining and travelled around the beautiful canals. A perfect excursion (apart from the obligatory chatty American tourists). There are loads of beautiful examples of 16^th century buildings alongside the canal and all around the city. The oldest bridge dates back to the 12^th century. If you want lots of history and old buildings – Bruges is definitely your place.

We managed to fit in a couple of essential museums. What is Belgium famous for? Chocolate and lace and….er, chips! The chip museum all about potatoes and how to make the perfect chip (yes, it’s a real science) and of course a sample of chips. Then, the chocolate museum all about cocoa beans and the history of chocolate to drink, cook and eat and then a demo of typical Belgium moulded, prauline filled chocs, with a very small sample. Both fantastic and definitely to be recommended. What about the lace? Er, mostly gave it a miss, but secretly I’d love to have a try.

That evening, James and I indulged our love of fish, and found a great little fish restaurant in a cellar near the fish market (obviously) where we had king prawns, and other fishy stuff. Messy but delicious. Then off to The Druids Cellar for some live music.

The next morning we started the day with a large Belgium waffle.

That gave us the energy to walk up the 366 narrow, steep steps to the top of the belfry which is one of the city’s most prominent symbols in the market square. It was built in 1280 and then added to over the years. It’s 83 meters high and has fantastic views from the top. For me that’s a double edged sword – I love to see the views, but I struggle with heights. According to Wikipedia, it leans about a meter to the east. Luckily I didn’t know that!

After lots more walking and looking at lovely old buildings, we stopped for a late lunch and I introduced James to the Belgium delicacy of ‘moules frites’ (mussels and…..obviously….chips), which we finished off with a glass of Belgium beer. We felt very Belgium!!

The time passed all too quickly and we headed back to the train station, and the bus back to Zebrugge. We boarded the ferry for our last night away, to enjoy a leisurely trip across the North Sea back to Hull and back to reality.

We're going on holiday

James and I are very excited that we are off for a short break to Bruges TODAY!

We are off to the Driffield Show this afternoon (and miracle of miracles it seems to be a warm, sunny day for a change!).

Then, we are heading straight down to Hull to catch the P&O Ferry to Zebrugge, and a train to Bruges. We have booked a hotel in Bruges so we can stay an extra day, and then back to Hull for Saturday.

As Babs from Chicken Run would say......"we're going on holiday!"

Life Begins at 40!

Very happy birthday to James, the special man in my life.

His mum organised a great party at their farm today where all his 4 brothers and sisters, with partners, spouses, children, etc attended. I understand it’s the first time everyone had been all together in….well, years! James was of course thrilled they all made the effort for his birthday. For me, it was my initiation into the family and I’m pleased to report all went well, and I seem to have been accepted into the family throng (that’s a close-knit group not a tiny, uncomfortable piece of underwear!). I even managed to get a go in the rowing boat!!

James got lots of badges, cards and presents. His mum made a cake with…guess what?....pigs on!

For a present - I got James a cookery lesson and cookbook and I framed a great photo of him standing by the Humber Bridge which I took at sunset while we were out walking last week - he was thrilled with his gifts.

Birthday Weekend

It’s been a busy weekend of birthday parties! Mum and James share their birthday on 13th July. Mum is 68 this year, and James is celebrating his ‘life begins’ birthday of 40.

Mum moved into her care home last March. Unfortunately, she doesn’t make much sense when she talks and she is lacking in understanding in many things, but she still knows who we all are (despite mixing up the names a little!), and enjoys a trip out and a good glass of wine. We decided to celebrate mum’s birthday a day early so we could all be together.

We managed to gather a good family group, and met up at the Beverley Arms Hotel. Toni, Benji, Barney, Liddi, me and James. We had a delicious (and filling) cream tea – complete with Danish flags and napkins! We had each brought presents and cards for mum, and the extra cards sent by very thoughtful absent friends. Mum loved all her presents and cards, and seemed happy and relaxed. We then indulged in some wine complete the party.

Trial run

Although I spent all my holiday money on my trip to Canada at Easter, James and I decided that we would still like to have a summer holiday, so we were very excited when his parents offered us the chance to use their caravan! We've planned to take the last week of August to visit a camp site in North Yorkshire (destination unknown - suggestions welcome)to enjoy the English countryside in summer.

So, last night we had a trial run! His parents have a farm near Malton, North Yorkshire, so they moved the caravan into the field near the sheep and we went and stayed the night last night. We got there around 7pm and got the car unpacked and explored all the secret cupboards, tables, etc of the caravan. It's only a small (4-birth) and fairly old caravan, but looked great fun never-the-less. We had brought a disposable bbq, so we opened the wine, and lit the bbq. After quite a while it didn't seem to have got going much apart from one small corner. Luckily, he had another disposable bbq in his car, so we decided to light that one instead. A while longer and still no joy - do they go off? or stale? or run out of lighting ability?? So, James put on his boy scout hat (metaphorically, of course, although.....nice thought!) and set about getting a few dry twigs from the woods, some bits of paper and cardboard, and combined what looked to be the best of the coal from each of the 2 non-lighting bbqs. Eventually, he got a great fire going, and a while longer the coals were ready for cooking our steak and vegetable kebabs (ok, we hadn't exactly forraged in the forest a la Ray Mears, but we had brought supplies in a cool box. By this time it was past 9pm, the sun was setting and most of the wine was drunk. It didn't seem to matter so much about the food, but we still persevered. All the while, the sheep had been observing us, obviously thinking "what are those idiot's doing?".

Amazingly, it had been a dry and sunny evening. James's parents had been out at their tango lessons (!), so joined us around 9.30 for some cheese & biscuits.

By the next morning, and after a surprisingly comfortable night's sleep, the rain started. I suppose last night's sunshine was too much to expect to last! We had tea and croissants in bed (very warm and cosy). Then went into Malton to visit the Museum and market. By now the rain was torrential! Back to the farm and cooked pasta carbonara for us and his parents for lunch. (we gave up on the caravan at that stage and moved into the farm kitchen and used the Arga). After a delicious lunch, back to unpack the caravan, still with sheep looking on in amusement. However, I found them pretty amusing too by now, as they were all tucked under the trees sheltering from the rain! Ha!

Obesity - is it in the genes?

I remember when we were young. We went on a summer's day outing. We asked for an ice-cream. We got a 'child's size' ice-cream. That was all we could manage, and that was all we expected. Nowadays, everything is just enormous. It's not genes that makes kids (or adults) fat - it's eating too much!! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work that out (actually, is it too late to train as a rocket scientist??). So, when Lydia and I were out shopping in Bridlington last week, we were shocked to see this little girl with her ice-cream 'treat' !!

Midsummer

June 21st. Midsummers Day. James and I decided to go to the beach to celebrate the longest day of the year, and the middle of summer. We went to Bridlington. Guess what? It was cold, windy and....yes, raining. The beach was deserted (unsurprisingly). The donkeys on the beach looked really miserable and had no customers.

Despite the cheery pavement signs, it was not really what midsummer should be. Whatever happened to global warming? I notice it's usually referred to nowadays as 'climate change' - iel., nothing to do with getting warmer, and certainly England in June seems to be more and more of a washout.

We ended up going to an owl & birds of prey sanctuary - still in the rain. We were the only people there. Even the birds were surprised to see us!

Old bangers

A couple of weeks ago, Toni and I went to see the old cars that were converged in Beverley's Saturday Market (on a Wednesday!). I thought we may see a few nice cars, but there were about 100. Some were cars that I remember from my youth as new cars - some I've even owned. That's an ageing thought! We took mum with us. Being June and England it obviously started raining. Raining a lot. So, at that point, we took refuge in the pub. Mum went to talk to some people in the pub. That confused them!