We were worried that the snow might affect our journey and sure enough when we checked the Eurostar website on Wednesday night the Eurostar was running a heavily reduced service to Bruges but the train we had booked was still running.
We left the flat at 6:20 and there was fresh snow everywhere which was pretty but a worry as well. Despite leaving the house pretty much as scheduled we got St Pancras only just in time and had to run to the platform, we were whisked to the front of the crowds of people and given First Class upgrades as they were reallocating all the seats. Quickly through security and customs and we are sitting comfortably in our First Class Eurostar seats (which we'd paid a bargain price of about £35 for) which included breakfast (unfortunately there was lots of wheat and dairy so I ate most of Jackie's). The journey was slower than normal because of the heavy snow across the UK but we got to Brussels and made the interchange for Bruges. Complete white out all the way from London to Bruges was quite spectacular.
Got the bus to our B&B accommodation in Bruges. Vincent, the B&B owner was very nice and welcoming he showed us to our room which was the former studio of an artist called Roger Gobron (http://www.rogergobron.com/), the room we had, had a special feature, well two actually. The first is the painted square canvases which are fixed to the wall with velcro, Vincent explained that each guest is asked to rearrange the squares in their own style, the photo below shows the style we arrived too...
The second special feature was a light show thing in the ceiling, very hard to describe, it was weird. Not sure if it was supposed to be romantic, it was just odd, but in a cool way. If you're ever in Bruges stay at Vincent's 'In Burges' B&B http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g188671-d1393199-Reviews-In_Bruges_Bed_Breakfast-Bruges_West_Flanders.html, it's very good and you'll get to understand what I mean about this light show thing.
It was arctic in Bruges, not sure what the actual temperature was but the forecast was for minus 7, so it was pretty cold and there was lots of snow around, although it wasn't snowing. We put on pretty much all the clothes we owned and headed out to explore, first of all stopping at a lovely tea rooms for lunch, http://www.merveilleux.eu/ I had chicken and mushroom casserole in puff pastry, I'm pretty sure there was loads of cream in the sauce which made it delicious. Jackie has the first of four goats cheese salads that were eaten over the two days. The food was great, service brilliant and the atmosphere of a real locals place, we were very pleased with our find. A photo from outside included below:
From here we started our exploring, having a look around the Christmas markets in the main square, they weren't that great. We did some shopping, picked up some chocolates and generally just did some sightseeing. When it came time to find somewhere for dinner we managed to find a recommended restaurant called The Hobbit which was famed for it's all you can eat ribs. The restaurant had a great atmosphere, despite the slightly poor service. The food was great, I had the spicy ribs, Jackie had a goats cheese salad (number 2). Some highlights from dinner included the antics from the old American couple at the table next to us, such as putting a paper napkin on the candle, the waitress calmly took the burning napkin and put it on a plate and left it at the bar to burn out - I suspect they're used to Americans doing stupid things like this.
On leaving dinner we noticed the pub across the road was the 300 Belgian beers pub which we'd heard about, we noted to return there the next day.
Home from dinner we treated ourselves to the chocolates that were bought earlier in the day.
Vincent brought us breakfast to have in our room...
Yum.
After breakfast we headed out for some sightseeing, one of the notable sights was Michaelangelo's Madonna and Child sculpture...
We visited a few chocolate shops, although only bought in a couple. It was astounding the number of chocolate shops, we're not sure how they all survive.
We had another nice lunch, choosing the table next to the heater to thaw out. Jackie ordered the set meal (soup, salad, coffee), the salad of choice... goats cheese, although I actually had the goats cheese salad while Jackie had the chicken salad which I ordered as it wasn't on the set menu. We stayed there long enough to thaw out before heading out for more walking around town.
I forgot to mention that we were lucky enough to have beautiful sunshine all day, which was great and meant that we could meander our way around Bruges, we walked though some parks, past frozen lakes and the swans, which I think are a bit of an icon in Bruges. We had to check in at an internet cafe to se if anything had been posted about the next days eurostar service as we weren't sure if we'd be able to get back to London.
Then the shopping started in earnest, just as I was starting to get tired. Several Christmas shops and homewares shops, and tea shops were visited with purchases from several shops. We did get to stop for the obligatory Belgian waffle which perked me up.
With our shopping completed we went to find the 300 belgian beer pub, which took a while to find but it was worth the hunt. We got a nice table at the back near a heater and ordered two Bush beers...
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g188671-d1181346-r45762546-T_Brugs_Beertje-Bruges_West_Flanders.html
Needless to say we had to have another after spotting that Bush was doing a Christmas beer. Jackie had this (12%) while I head a wheat beer.
From here we went to dinner at a nice restaurant called Simon's somthingarather. http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g188671-d1045531-Reviews-Simon_Stevin-Bruges_West_Flanders.html It was very nice, I had the mussels, another Belgian must. Jackie had... goats cheese salad (we shared it this time as an entrée, it was great) followed by chicken breast. We both got frites (belgian chips) with our mains and duly wolfed them down with mayonnaise, very european of us.
Final day started with another great breakfast from Vincent and a little more shopping to pick up the last chocolates. We decided to head to Brussels early even though our train wasn't scheduled to depart till 8pm because we'd heard the trains might not be running so we figured they migh put us on an earlier one if they had the space, which they did, which was great because it meant we got home much earlier than we'd expected.
So that was Bruges, we really enjoyed it and would love to go back if we ever got the chance.
A few random touristy photos below...
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