Brugge - Day 23

Today starts the same way as yesterday with Kris and Tyler going down to collect our bakery items. Mia complains she's too tired so she doesn't go down the stairs. That's fair enough because the stairs can be a pain. It seems on a holiday through Europe you can't avoid stairs. Our apartment in London had 43 stairs. Our apartment in Edinburgh had 82 stairs, Paris 52 stairs and now Brugge 26 stairs. The Brugge stairs are like the ones in the Paris apartment, tiny and spiralling and are actually quite dangerous. Anyway, after brekky we head straight to the Bell-fort, the city's bell tower. We are first in line for when the doors open at 9:30am and we make our way up more stairs, 382 of them to the top. The stairs are tiny and spiralling and at times there is limited headroom. At the top is a fantastic view over Brugge. While we are up there the bells start ringing and they are loud. We hang around a bit longer to hear the bells go off at 10 o'clock and they are even louder. We make our way down and we have to do it via the same set of stairs as on the way up so now we are battling other people coming up the stairs as we are battling the tiny stairs down. We survive the descent and make our way to The Halve Maan brewery for our tour. The tour is lead by a creepy older lady who takes us around the brewery. The tour is great and when we get to the end we get a free beer (Kris and the kids have an OJ). We grab a table inside and order lunch (we would have grabbed a table outside where it's much nicer but it seems the best spots in Europe are reserved for all the filthy cigarette smokers). So, we're just sitting there talking and eating our lunch and there is this older grandpa looking dude sitting at the table next to us. All of a sudden he leans over onto one cheek of his arse and let's rip! And I'm not talking a little squirter I'm talking a big prolonged sloppy fart, we thought the guy had messed himself!! We all look at each other and just burst out laughing, trying not to laugh too loud but this guy hasn't missed a beat, business as usual for him, he just keeps eating looking straight ahead. We finish our lunch and leave grandpa to enjoy his aroma. We decide to go for a coffee at this coffee shop we passed earlier that had amazing cakes in the window, cakes similar to Paris. We go in and find a seat and when the waitress walks past, Kris says "Excuse me, how do we order?" the waitress looks at Kris with this snooty look and says "I give you da menu!!". Ok, so we look at the menu and we decide we will have a cake with our coffee but you have to go to the front of the shop to choose a cake. I do that and Ms Snooty comes back for our order. Kris explains I'm just off choosing a cake and she says she'll come back. She didn't indicate what day she was coming back so we wait and wait and then we wait some more. Kris had had enough of Ms Snooty by now so she suggests we bail and we collect up our gear and walk. This is something we are getting good at, walking when we get rude service. The people in Brugge are a bit indifferent, some people are lovely and some are stuck up and arrogant. We decide to go back to the apartment and have a break for a while. The kids sit down to watch a movie that they have selected from the DVD collection at reception and Kris and I hit the honesty bar. Kris decides to try a beer and selects one of the apple beers in the fridge. Not being a beer drinker she hasn't tried any beers but she figures this is probably the closest thing to not being a beer. We go upstairs and open the big windows and put our feet up on the window sill and have a drink. Kris lasts about 2 sips into her beer and says "Nope, too beery for me". I have a sip and it tastes like fizzy apple juice, I can't taste beer in at all but hey, at least she gave it a go. After the movie we head back out to do a boat cruise along the canals. They squeeze about 30 people into these long, shallow boats and cruise around the canals for about half an hour. It was really good fun and you get to see a side of Brugge you wouldn't normally see. Aft that we wander some more trying to find a place to have a drink but the cigarette smoke gets the better of us and we decide to go back to the apartment and raid the honesty bar again. The kids watch another movie before we head out again, this time to get back on the horse and carriage to do the tour again. We ask the girl who is taking us around if the kids can sit up front with her and she said the she can allow one, so Mia rides up front first and Tyler changes over half way around. By the time we jump off it’s become dark so we look around for somewhere to eat. We try Cambrinus again but we are out of luck. The place is heaving and there is no available table until at least 9:30. We go over the road and give the Italian restaurant a try. The manager was Indian, the cook was Asian so we were expecting some unusual food but it was very nice. After dinner it's back to the apartment to pack our bags as we need to be up early to leave for Wurzburg in the morning.

View from the bell-fort

 

View from the bell-fort

Tyler enjoying his chocolate waffle

 

Mia enjoying it up front on the carriage