Northern Europe Once More

Select a date to view

  • Apr 03, 2015 - Back to Europe
  • Apr 04, 2015 - Amsterdam Revisited
  • Apr 05, 2015 - More Amsterdam
  • Apr 06, 2015 - To Bruges
  • Apr 07, 2015 - Beautiful Bruges
  • Apr 08, 2015 - To London
  • Apr 09, 2015 - London Revisited
  • Apr 10, 2015 - London to Dublin
  • Apr 11, 2015 - Dublin Explored
  • Apr 12, 2015 - Leaving Europe
  • Apr 12, 2015 - Summary
  • Monday, Apr 06, 2015

    Monday

    In the morning, I checked out and headed to a tram station. I would be using public transport again as I had a lot of weight to move around and not that much time. This time I actually paid for the service.

    At the train station, we all met up and took a train heading southwest. It was a nice ride, but there was some confusion later in the trip when we had stopped and some lady came up with a ticket showing the same seat number as mine.

    And “mine” wasn’t really mine since I had switched with Terry so he could sit with his family and I could sit was a trio of French women. But then Terry could not find his tickets right away, so the confusion grew. Finally, we realized the issue. The system did in fact not make a mistake. We did. We were simply not supposed to still be on the train as the last stop was our transfer point.

    We had just assumed it was Brussels when it was in fact Antwerp.

    Oops.

    So we gave up our seats and stood the rest of the way. Then in Brussels we waited for a while and caught the next train to Bruges. It wasn’t the worst blunder in the world as that would come in two days, led by yours truly.

    But soon we were on the right train. Well, another train, but it was heading to the right city. And in due time, we were in the fairy tale city of ...

    Bruges.

    It’s a charming and relatively quiet town (compared to London or Amsterdam), with a really nice old square in the middle. Our hotel was the Best Western Acacia and it was essentially a steal of a price. The location was about a minute from the square (20 seconds, if running). The room I had was fantastic and the amenities were nice. In the lobby, there was even an African grey chatting away from time to time.

    We toured around the city a bit and settled on a recommended restaurant for dinner. The food was okay, though nothing great.

    After dinner we walked around more and had a drink at a place overlooking the square. And that’s a nice way to finish a day in Europe. Sit back with friends, have a drink and take in the day. If only ever day could be like then, though then again, then those particular times wouldn’t be as special.