So I survived another long weekend. This one actually started Thursday night with a few celebratory drinks with work people. Just celebrating the fact a long weekend was here, nothing else really... who needs an excuse.
Unfortunately a few of us moved on later to an 80s club... the horror. After arriving home around 3am and taking a short nap I was up and off to the tour by 5... yes 5am. Unbeknownst to me this was to set a pattern for the weekend. We had an almost full bus with 48 travellers, a tour guide and a driver. After waiting for one person (who would join us later in Dover due to a similar affliction as my own...) we were off for the drive to Dover. We ended up with a bit of free time in Dover as we were fairly early for our train.
Given the free time we went to Dover Castle. There are loads of tunnels under it, some dating back to the Napoleonic Wars, that were used through WWII and a bit after. We did a quick guided tour and then enjoyed the sun and views of the sea. It was nice an clear so you could actually see a bit of the French coast in the distance. Mid afternoon we set off on the train/chunnel as the ferry was going to put us in too late.
After driving through the French / Belgian countryside we arrived in the picturesque city of Brugge (Bruges). It has lots of canals, meandering cobblestone streets and a few windmills. I really enjoyed the city. Its not too big, only about 40,000 people. The is a famous belfry, that is massive (with a bit of imagination it also looks like Bruges is giving France the finger...), a huge cathedral with the statue of the Madonna and child (the only one my Michelangelo to leave Italy during his life) and the Church of the Holy Blood (or something like that, that is supposed to have a vial of Christ's blood inside), and other buildings and sights.
We were up to our own for most of the trip so various groups of the tour split off and wandered around. We did do an organized brewery tour - cool and fun. Apparently back in the day, people in Bruges drank about 5 liters a day (but very low alcohol per volume). Mostly because to make beer you boil the water - which kills all the bad stuff in it. Also the roof top of the brewery had great views of the city. After the brewery (not sure this was the best idea) we did a bike tour.
The bike tour was great. After navigating the touristy areas with only minor difficulty, we went out on the outskirts of town. We had great weather all weekend so it was awesome. Basically every night we went out. Beers range up to 10% or so and you can get the liter steins... So you can imagine, much money was spent with little sleep to show for it. Somehow a few clubs and even a karaoke bar found their way into the mix.
So then on Sunday (yes all of that was Friday and Saturday and I didn't even scratch the surface much) we went over to Brussels... Not that exciting of a place. Saw the famous statues Mannekin Pis (little boy peeing...) and had a few more pints. But before we got into town, we stopped at the Atomium. Its this huge structure shaped like an atom that was built for the 1958 World's Fair (or something along those lines). Well now they have a temporary zip line to the roof, called DEATHRIDE, and all for only 25 euros... So of course i signed up straight away with a few others. We made the climb to the top (102 metres - 335 feet) clipped on the line and off we went. AWESOME fun, bit unnerving given I think I was still suffering from the night/morning before.
Eventually we headed out and after a long exhausting but fun weekend of beer, chocolate, beer, pomme frites (french fries with mayo), beer and mussels (apparently mussels from Brussels refers to the food and not Jean Claude Van Damme (that'd be muscles anyway)) we made our way back to Calais for the ferry.... But the ferry turned back to Dover due to a medical emergency and we had to wait for the next one. Oh well, we made it home in the end.
I do have some pictures but no bandwidth to upload them. They will go up soon.
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