10/5 Bruges (Belgium)

A big moment for us - getting out of the UK is the first time we have set foot on completely unknown territory for us on this trip.

Firstly, our pleasure cruise. We took the ferry from Hull (no, not much there apart from the ferry) which was an overnight trip. Given that you can get the ferry from Dover to France in 4 hours, the boat barely moves. It was, however, lots of fun. Jane was a bit concerned that our deluxe cabin was a '5 berth bunkroom' on the ticket - it turns out it is the same room, but they only make up two of the beds.

Overall the ship is a very cheesy cruise liner with several restaurants, bars, and a night club. We skipped the bingo.

Our cabin on the love boat. Note separate beds- yeeeesssss 

......If only the boat was as pretty as the sunset.

No caption needed. 

Our first stop in Belgium was Bruges. The first time we saw this city was in the movie 'In Bruge' when Colin Farrell said 'If I grew up on a farm, and I was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn't, so it doesn't'. Of course, this has made the city more popular than ever.

We loved it here. It is a very complete medieval city which is ringed by a canal, and best of all our campground was an easy 10 minute bike ride away. I won't say more, the picture speak for themselves.

I have always wondered why the Belgian beer cafe's in NZ and Australia serve you the beer in a soaking wet glass (it really, really irritates me). Well, it doesn't happen in Belgium - so next time that happens to you, tell them I said to take it back and dry it.

Finally, a word on the new experience of driving a right hand drive motorhome on the right hand side of the road. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it is very odd. To help with driving and not getting run over when we step off the footpath, I came up with a song:

"Look to the left,
drive on the right,
and then you won't
get squashed and killed."

It is a bit tuneless at the moment, but I think we have a modern classic on our hands.

Town square plus ponies. Pony rides look cool, but have the unfortunate side effect of making tourist attractions smell like pony wee. 

This is the Bloedbasilisk where Jane touched a reliquary containing the blood of Christ. Even though I am not religious, it was a very special moment.

We couldn't take photos, so this is a photo of a photo of the reliquary

Typical street with the Belfry in the background.

Jane is disappointed at the small selection of cheese. We made do.

More of the market. I think that dude with the glasses is checking out the lady with the bike.

You would make that face too if you were eating sausage wrapped in bacon off a stick. Why does everything taste better on a stick?

View of one of the canals from the Belfry.

The canal that goes around Bruges connects up with the various waterways of Europe - so you get scenes like this. An enormous barge carrying scrap cruising past - and lifting bridges! (See below)

Proof that Jane can ride a bike. This is the exact moment we accidentally went the wrong way in our cycle around the outside of Bruges and started cycling back the way we came. 

Small bit of bridge/engineering love - a piston pushes it up just forward of the pivot point (at the back of the photo) and the arms attach to the clips (bottom right of photo). So cool....

A windmall - two things which are awesome; 1.  the whole thing moves to face the wind; 2. I took this photos while I was cycling.

Onwards - to Brussels!