Day 2. 18th April 2024.
Bray-Dunes to Bruges, Belgium
Last night’s storm didn’t go on all night, thank goodness, though we did have more thunder apparently.
This morning was lovely and bright but very chilly. We started early and moved on to Belgium, deciding on Bruges, a place we had all visited on occasions via a cruise ship or two but never in the van. It was about an hour’s drive.
There’s a great stop just off of the ring road (very important as once you come inside the ring road you have to comply with low emission rules) next to a coach park and the river Reie, with a marina on the other side so lots of nice boats to look at too.
This Aire (Campground Bargeweg Bruge) is quite expensive at €25 a night but does include everything apart from fresh water.
The centre is signposted from the Aire and takes you along the River Reie, through a small park and then into town.
Bruges is very pretty, especially when the sun is shining. The sun gave us false hope as we had to layer up soon after setting out 
and set the scene for the rest of the day really. Where we could, we walked in the sun and where possible we sat in sunny spots at the cafes and restaurants.
Gareth calls Bruges the chocolate capital of Europe 
, he’s not far wrong because even the buildings that aren’t chocolate shops look like they should be 
.
We watched on the bridges as the pleasure boats, full of visitors sped up and down the canal. One thing that surprised us was how busy it was on a Thursday in mid April.
Escaping the queues of tourists and their guides we happened upon Beerlane.
This alley’s walls are festooned with display cabinets containing bottled beers and where possible, the corresponding drinking glass.
Wow! Which one to have? Well, it would be rude not to! At the end of the lane is the bar 2BE. There were at least 12 beers on tap and then thousands of bottles for you to choose from. I chose a wheat beer, Jane and Andrew had a cherry beer (kriek) and Gareth had a snakebite . There were high, long tables and stools with heaters above, what was not to like?.
Now, we needed food . Walking on through the cute little cobbled streets, trying very hard not to get run over by cycles, horse and carts and motorcars. Eventually we came into the square with it’s gorgeous buildings and restaurants.
Grabbing a place in the sun didn’t last very long as it started to rain shortly after we settled down.
There was a very good choice of food too. Jane adventurously tried the mussels in a cheese sauce for a starter, Gareth had mussels in white wine with frites and Andrew had chicken. For main meal Jane and I had the Flemish stew.
Yum yum. Sitting in the big square is lovely, listening to the horse and carts arriving and departing is a great sound, reverberating off of the surrounding buildings.
After lunch we did some window shopping, Gareth found a shop selling diabetic chocolate and the obligatory fridge magnet was purchased.
Heading back out of town we stopped in the last bar for coffee and beer whilst watching the swing bridge open to allow a couple of barges through, one of which had a car parked on its roof – since that one, we have seen others .
The dogs received a lot of attention from some Italian visitors in the park, they were very happy to give strokes away before we arrived back at the vans.
An afternoon kip was required and then we convened outside on the picnic tables for a catch-up whilst it was still warm enough to do so.
Supposed to be raining most of tomorrow so we think it may be a driving day.
Have a fab Thursday evening all.
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